‘Locally Grown’ Insurance Companies Help Fortify Washington State Market

“We’ve had locally grown insurers that dominated the health insurance market for individuals,” [WA insurance commissioner] Kreidler said. These insurers are tied to the local community and must succeed in Washington or in the Pacific Northwest region to stay in business. That motivates them to try harder to meet the needs of their customers, he said. “Insurers that are local and tied to the community — not from out of state, coming in and out — they were ones that need to stay or they weren’t going to be in business,” Kreidler said.

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The individual insurance market here features companies that do business only in the Pacific Northwest, such as Asuris Northwest Health and Premera Blue Cross. Both nonprofits have been selling health insurance in the region for many years. Premera and its subsidiary LifeWise Health Plan have taken about 13% of the total health insurance market in Washington, selling to companies and individuals, both inside and outside of the Obamacare marketplace.

“Local plans can really make a difference in stabilizing their state-based marketplace,” said Emily Curran, a research fellow at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. They help fill in geographical market gaps and build better partnerships with local doctors and hospitals, and are more effective at reaching underserved populations.

One key to their success, she said, is their commitment to a local market. They can succeed only if they make the business work locally.

“They have an incentive to make sure the market is stable,” she said.

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KevinKohler said:

Doesn't address medical care COST.


That's the problem, no one seems to want to realistically address. Root cause.

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Greenbeard said:

Washington state's marketplace premiums will be virtually flat going into next year, and KHN uses that fact as an excuse to think through what the structure of their market looks like. Namely the prevalence of "locally grown insurers."

Massachusetts is similar, in that it's dominated by non-profit local insurers and the Big 5 national for-profit insurers (United, Anthem, Aetna, Cigna, and Humana) have a very small presence. What are the benefits of that? Well, they're invested in the local community and they can't pull out of the market so they've got to figure out how to make it work. (E.g., BCBSMA is one of the most innovative payers in the country: Changing The Way Doctors Are Paid Made Patients Healthier And Saved Money, Study Finds )

But back to Washington.

‘Locally Grown’ Insurance Companies Help Fortify Washington State Market



I have to say I like that model of local players interacting locally, though it's no guarantee of lower costs.

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Mycroft said:

Who would have thought...choices, customer service and competition being a good thing?

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Greenbeard said:

Literally everyone who's supported the marketplaces this past decade.

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Mycroft said:

You aren't talking about Obamacare, are you? That was the antithesis of choice, customer service and competition. Everything was mandated...from the consumer to the provider.

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