8/2/17: Noozhawk reports that Anthem Blue Cross is quitting the Covered California market Santa Barbara County in 2018. This is expected to leave only one insurance company, Blue Shield, offering plans through the exchange in Santa Barbara County.
As of March, Covered California had 17,020 enrollees in Santa Barbara County, which includes Anthem and Blue Shield plans. Especially impacted are Covered California consumers who use Sansum Clinic's 23 primary, specialty and urgent care clinics in the area, because Anthem is the only Covered California plan that is in-network for Sansum providers.
In a statement announcing the pullout, Anthem blamed the move, in part, on uncertainty over whether the Trump administration would maintain the Affordable Care Act’s federal subsidies for insurers. "The market for these plans has become unstable,” said Brian Ternan, Anthem’s president. “With federal rules and guidance changing, it’s no longer possible for us to offer some of those plans."
8/1/17: The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports premiums in our area will increase by an average of 6% for 2018. Statewide, Covered California says premiums for 2018 will rise 12.5%, while in the Central Coast region (which includes Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties), the average increase will be 6%.
The expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act has driven the percentage of uninsured Californians to a record low. The proportion of Californians lacking health insurance was 7.1 percent last year, down from 17 percent in 2013, before the coverage-expanding provisions of the ACA began, federal data show. The expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for lower-income residents, accounts for a significant part of that reduction. About 3.8 million Californians became eligible for Medi-Cal coverage under the ACA. Total enrollment is 13.5 million, or about a third of the state’s population.
