Health insurers optimistic after meeting with Trump

After meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House early Monday, the CEOs of several large health insurers were optimistic about the future of the health insurance industry if the Affordable Care Act is repealed and replaced. The executives discussed plans to stabilize the individual insurance market.

CEOs of Aetna, Anthem, Cigna Corp., Humana, UnitedHealth, Kaiser Permanente and several Blue Cross Blue Shield companies attended the meeting. Industry lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, was also in attendance.

A Molina Healthcare spokeswoman said the Long Beach, Calif.-based insurer, which provided marketplace coverage to 526,000 people in 2016, was not invited to attend and did not know why. Molina lost $110 million from the plans it sold on the marketplaces in 2016.

WellCare, which does not sell plans on the exchanges but has benefited from the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, also didn’t attend. The handful of health insurance co-ops established by the ACA that have not yet folded were also not in attendance.

The meeting offered health insurers a chance to discuss their concerns surrounding the future of the ACA and its replacement plan. Many insurers, including Anthem, Aetna and Molina, have said they can’t commit to participating in the ACA exchanges in 2017 until they know what regulation will look like after the health care law is dismantled.

Read the full story at Modern Healthcare: Health insurers optimistic after meeting with Trump – Modern Healthcare