UnitedHealth to leave Obamacare market in California

UnitedHealth Group Inc. is leaving California’s insurance exchange at the end of this year, state officials confirmed. The nation’s largest health insurer announced in April it was dropping out of all but a handful of 34 health insurance marketplaces it participated in. UnitedHealth’s pullout also affects individual policies sold outside the Covered California exchange, which will remain in effect until the end of December. “United is pulling out of California’s individual market including Covered California in 2017,” said Amy Palmer, a spokeswoman for the state exchange. It’s expected that UnitedHealth will continue offering coverage to employers in California and to government workers and their families through the California Public Employees’ Retirement System. UnitedHealth just joined the California exchange this year, and it only had about 1,200 enrollees so the immediate impact on overall coverage numbers is minimal. In February, Covered California’s executive director, Peter Lee, criticized UnitedHealth for blaming the federal health law for its heavy losses instead of taking responsibility for its own business mistakes. New York and Nevada have said that UnitedHealth will participate in the individual markets there and the company has filed plans to sell similar plans in Virginia.