Menu
IBJ
The state of Indianapolis recently lost five individual health carriers from the market. For those working in the health insurance industry, this comes as no surprise. Below are the five companies that exited and the reasons for their departures:
American Community Mutual Insurance Co.
American Community left Indianapolis due to insolvency. The company had struggled for years to be profitable because of poor company leadership. Michigan’s Department of Insurance took over the company last year.
Pekin Insurance
Though still practicing, especially in Illinois, Pekin Insurance is no longer active in the under-65 individual health market.
Guardian Life Insurance Co.
Guardian is a large, New York based insurance carrier. The individual health market in Indianapolis wasn’t a good fit for the company.
Cigna Corp
Cigna is a large group carrier that never offered significant individual health product in Indianapolis.
Aetna Inc
The loss of Aetna is a substantial blow to competition in Indianapolis’s individual health market. Aetna offered a number of competitive products that were beginning to gain traction. Recent statistics indicate the company still has more than 700 active policies in the state.
Indianapolis’s health insurance market suffers from decreased competition. But the introduction of the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR) has made the reward in the individual market too risky for these companies. The MLR is the percentage of your premium dollars an insurance company spends on providing you with health care, as opposed to what is spent on overhead and administrative costs.
Anthem and United Health Care are the most competitive carriers in the state, followed by a few small carriers like Humana, Assurant, and Medical Mutual of Ohio.
Have you been affected by any of these changes?
