Anthem to end ObamaCare plans in Indiana, Wisconsin

Anthem will pull out of the ObamaCare exchanges in Indiana and Wisconsin next year, the insurance giant announced Wednesday. 

Anthem cited uncertainty surrounding how the Trump administration will handle the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as one reason for leaving. 

“Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage,” spokeswoman Leslie Porras said in a statement. 

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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) said in a statement that consumers in his home state of Wisconsin “will now have to scramble to find new plans and new doctors” while ObamaCare is “clearly collapsing” around them.

“This law has failed our state, where average individual market premiums have skyrocketed by 93 percent since 2013,” Ryan said.

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, also a Wisconsin native, drew attention to Anthem’s move on Twitter:

Just today another insurer withdrew from an #Obamacare marketplace – this time in WI. #RepealAndReplace https://t.co/GB5THbHYuU

— Reince Priebus (@Reince45) June 21, 2017

Insurers including Anthem have pressed the Trump administration for more certainty on whether ObamaCare insurer payments, called cost sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies, will be paid. 

Those payments reimburse insurers for giving discounts to low-income patients.

While insurers want the payments to continue through at least 2018, the Trump administration has only made month-to-month decisions. 

A spokesperson with the Health and Human Services Department said Tuesday the CSR payment for June has been made but did not commit to future payments. 

Insurers across the country have proposed rate increases to make up for the uncertainty, and others have pulled out of markets. 

There are an unprecedented 47 counties at risk of having no ObamaCare insurer in 2018. 

Wednesday is the federal deadline for insurers to file rates and plans with the federal government for next year.