Premera Blue Cross is cutting back its participation in the insurance exchange market set up under the Affordable Care Act. And the Mountlake Terrace, Wash.-based insurer partly blames rural healthcare providers’ excessive rates for its pullback.
Modern Healthcare suggests that the insurer’s move “suggests a broader problem with the U.S. model of relying on competition to keep healthcare costs affordable in markets where there is limited or no competition between providers. It also points to the challenge for insurers of investing in members’ health when those members can jump to a different exchange plan each year.”
