Insurance Co-op to Exit New Hampshire

Concord — A health insurance cooperative based in Maine has informed New Hampshire insurance regulators that next year it will stop providing coverage in the Granite State, where 11,600 people are currently covered by its group and individual policies.

Community Health Options, a Lewiston, Maine, organization that was formed with federal financial backing authorized by the Affordable Care Act, is one of five insurers that together currently cover more than 90,000 New Hampshire residents with individual policies sold through the federally operated marketplace, the online health insurance exchange where individuals shop for coverage.

Community Health Options and Harvard Pilgrim’s New Hampshire Network are the only two individual plans sold on the marketplace that include all 26 of the state’s hospitals in their provider networks, according to a summary compiled by the New Hampshire Insurance Department.

But Community Health Options, which began selling insurance in Maine in 2014 and expanded into New Hampshire last year, now covers fewer than 3,500 New Hampshire residents through individual marketplace policies. In December 2015, it stopped selling new policies and, with less than a 4 percent share of that market, it trailed the other four insurers competing for business in that venue.

Read more: http://www.vnews.com/Troubled-Maine-Health-Insurance-Coop-Exits-New-Hampshire-Market-4475653