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Coventry Quitting Kansas Marketplace As Enrollment Period Nears

Healthcare.gov

Kansans seeking health insurance in the Affordable Care Act marketplace will soon have fewer choices. That’s because a major provider is withdrawing from the marketplace. Heartland Health Monitor’s Jim McLean has the story.

Two Aetna subsidiaries are pulling out of the Kansas marketplace only two weeks before the Nov. 1 start of the next open enrollment period.

Coventry Health & Life Insurance Company and Coventry Health Care of Kansas will maintain current policies through the end of the year but won’t offer 2016 plans.

Aetna spokesman Rohan Hutchings says the company made the decision reluctantly based on several factors, including its competitive position in the marketplace. Coventry requested large rate increases for its 2016 plans, but they were pared back by Kansas Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer.

Coventry’s departure leaves four companies participating in the Kansas marketplace. Three of them are members of the Blue Cross Blue Shield family of companies. The other is United HealthCare of the Midwest.

Read more on this story from KHI News