Paul LePage says he will create a healthcare system for Maine so it can exit Obamacare
Meanwhile, the state of the exchange market in Maine and in other states going into 2018 is still in flux.
Maine Governor Paul LePage said the state may pursue its own health insurance systems as a replacement to the Affordable Care Act exchange.
LePage, a Republican, supported the Party's proposed repeal and replacement of the ACA with the American Health Care Act, a bill the GOP pulled Friday for lack of votes for it to pass.
LePage gave no details of how the state insurance system would run, saying, "We are just going to withdraw the state and just go do our own thing," according to the Portland Press Herald.
Meanwhile, the state of the exchange market in Maine and in other states going into 2018 is still in flux.
[Also: GOP pulls healthcare bill after signs pointed to embarrassing defeat]
In a March 9 letter to House committees that approved the GOP plan for the American Health Care Act, Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said that without significant changes in the ACA market, the insurer would have to withdraw from the market.
"As I have said publicly, without significant regulatory and statutory changes to the individual market, we will begin to 'surgically extract' Anthem from that market beginning in 2018," Swedish said in the letter.
Insurers are in the process of setting premium rates.
Anthem is in that process for the ACA market in 14 states, with some state requiring filings by mid-April, Swedish said.
Among provisions in the AHCA that would help the individual market are the expanded use of health savings accounts, the establishment of the Patient and State Stability Fund, the repeal of the ACA's health insurance tax, the continuation of cost sharing reduction subsidies and allowing the use of tax credits for off-exchange health plans, he said.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
