LANSING – An additional four health insurance companies will offer coverage for Michigan residents in the federal marketplace in 2015, figures from the federal Department of Health and Human Services showed, bringing to 16 the number of companies that residents will be able to shop for insurance.
Michigan is one of seven stats in the federal marketplace that will see the number of companies offering coverage to increase by 4 companies. The other states are Florida, Georgia, Missouri, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Texas.
Only Indiana, with six, and Ohio, with five, had more companies added to the federal marketplace.
No state lost net companies, according to the federal department, though several saw no increase. Some states that saw net increases saw other companies leave the marketplace. Michigan was not one of those states. Data from all the states was not yet available.
Nationally, the federal marketplace will see an increase in the number of companies offering coverage of 25 percent over 2014, said the department, a total of 57 net new companies in the 36 states using the federal marketplace. That will mean a total of 248 companies writing coverage in 2015 rather than the 191 in 2014 (there are 67 new companies all total, with 10 companies withdrawing from the markets).
Among the eight states with state marketplaces that had reported, there were a total of six net new companies writing coverage in 2015, meaning 67 companies overall.
The federal report also said the Michigan along with Texas and Ohio would have the greatest number of issuers.
The news was praised by supporters of the controversial Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as evidence that it is working. In a statement, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) said the increased number of companies was an “illustration of the early success” of the system.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
