Obamacare Plans Are Turning a Profit: Brainstorm Health

Good afternoon, readers!

In the 2018 iteration of Coins2Day‘s Crystal Ball—our collective predictions for what might happen across industries in the coming year—we wrote that Obamacare plans would turn a profit in 2019, and that certain insurers would continue to double down on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces in spite of the political bedlam besieging them.

As it turns out… Obamacare plans are turning a profit in 2019, and certain insurers are continuing to double down on them in spite of said political bedlam.

Oscar Health, the startup that has largely placed its bet on the individual insurance market (while simultaneously expanding in other directions) is adding six new states—including Pennsylvania and Georgia—to its slate of Obamacare plan offerings in 2020.

“This is the third consecutive year Oscar has significantly expanded its footprint, and this expansion brings Oscar’s total geographic footprint to 15 states and 26 markets,” said the company in a statement on Thursday.

And it’s not just Oscar. Cigna and Centene (the latter being a long-time Obamacare iconoclast and enthusiast) are also expanding their ACA offerings next year.

The reasoning, for the companies, is simple: After several rocky years and an avalanche of political disruption (including the repeal of ACA’s individual insurance mandate), the firms have concluded that there’s still significant profit to be made—especially as some larger insurers have retrenched from the markets.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, [email protected]

DIGITAL HEALTH

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INDICATIONS

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THE BIG PICTURE

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