Anthem moving ahead on 2018 ACA plans

Anthem Inc., which has 1.1 million customers in individual Affordable Care Act plans, said it is forging ahead with its 2018 insurance filings but telling state regulators that it could increase premiums sharply and exit some markets.

Anthem is the parent company of Amerigroup Iowa, one of the three managed-care organizations that handle Iowa's Medicaid program.

During a Wednesday morning earning conference call, the insurer reported much better than expected profit and revenue, helped by increased membership in its government business, which sells Medicaid and Medicare plans and higher premium rates.

President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have vowed to overhaul the ACA, often called Obamacare, but have not agreed on how to do that, making it difficult for insurers to plan for next year.

While insurers expect the ACA to continue through 2018, the Republican disagreements have put two important funding aspects into question - cost-sharing subsidies for patients' out-of-pocket costs and an industrywide health insurance tax.

Anthem, the largest ACA insurer alongside Molina HealthCare Inc, is the first to detail how it will handle this.

Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said on the conference call that without cost-sharing subsidies, premium rates could rise 20 percent or more. If the health insurance tax is in place in 2018, rates could increase 3 percent to 5 percent, he said.

As a result, Anthem may reduce local area participation, request additional rate increases, eliminate product offerings or exit 'certain individual ACA-compliant markets altogether,” Swedish said.

Anthem operates BlueCross BlueShield plans in 14 states.