UnitedHealth will drop out of most ACA exchanges

UnitedHealth Group CEO Stephen Hemsley said the health insurance and services conglomerate will pull out of most of its Affordable Care Act marketplaces. But the company won’t bail on the exchanges completely and will sell individual plans in a “handful” of states.“We cannot broadly serve it on an effective and sustained basis,” Hemsley told analysts and investors on a conference call. UnitedHealth has fully or partially exited five states so far—Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan and Oklahoma, according to various news reports. The company sold plans in 34 states for this policy year and did not disclose which states it will stay in. Insurers that sell plans through the federal HealthCare.gov portal have until May 11 to file rates for 2017 plans.