Highmark to cancel half of Obamacare plans in Pennsylvania in 2017

Highmark Inc. is canceling individual health plans in more than half of the Pennsylvania counties in which it has sold the plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace, reducing the competition that some experts say is necessary to make the market sustainable.

The Pittsburgh-based insurer is no longer selling the plans in 27 of the 49 counties in which it sold them for 2016, according to a Tribune-Review analysis of federal marketplace data. About 70 percent of the insurer’s individual marketplace members in Pennsylvania will lose their plans, according to a Highmark spokesman.

The plans expire at the end of the year. Those with canceled plans will have to choose another plan if they want to stay insured and might have to find new doctors.

Read the full story at the Pittsburgh Tribune: Highmark pulls out of ACA marketplace in 27 Pennsylvania counties for 2017 | TribLIVE