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Five health insurance companies in Ohio, including Molina Healthcare Inc, have stepped up to sell health plans in 19 counties that would have been without Obamacare individual coverage in 2018, the state's insurance regulator said on Monday. (Humer, 7/31)

Nearly every Ohioan will have an option on the Obamacare health care exchange even after Anthem leaves.The Ohio Department of Insurance has worked with five insurers to cover 19 counties — and about 11,000 Ohioans — that would have been left without an option on the state's health care exchange next year. Concerned about uncertainty over the future of Obamacare, health care heavy-hitter Anthem and Dayton-based Premier Health Plan announced they would leave the exchange in 2018, leaving a fifth of the state's counties in the lurch. (Balmert, 7/31)

“Ohio has long had a strong insurance system, and once again our insurers stepped up at an important time for thousands of Ohioans, taking unprecedented action to provide access to health insurance for Ohioans who otherwise were without options,” insurance director Jillian Froment said in a statement. A single Ohio county, Paulding County, still has no insurer expected to offer plans on the exchange. Froment said that regulators are searching for coverage options for that county. (Johnson, 7/31)

Insurers have until late September—when they sign federal contracts to offer exchange products—to make final calls on their participation, amid questions about steps that the Trump administration may take that insurers say could undercut marketplace offerings. “We recognize there is a lot of uncertainty at the federal level,” said Jillian Froment, director of the Ohio Department of Insurance. “Change at that level could affect coverage, not only in those 19 counties, but all 88 counties.” (Wilde Mathews, 7/31)

The prospect that 20 counties would lack a single carrier followed announcements that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio, covering the entire state, and Premier Health Plan, a smaller insurer based in Dayton, decided to exit the ACA market in 2018. The insurers cited uncertainty in the market, including an ongoing question of whether the federal government will provide payments it was supposed to under the ACA. (Koff, 7/31)

[Chris Brock, the insurance department’s assistant director of public affairs] cautioned, however, that nothing is guaranteed until the companies sign contracts with the federal government at the end of September. Even then, coverage would be certain only through 2018. “This is not a commitment that they will be here in the next two years or five years or 10 years,” Brock said. (Schladen, 8/1)

California officials plan to release next year's monthly premiums Tuesday for people who buy individual insurance plans under former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The announcement comes at a time of extreme uncertainty about the future of the U.S. health care system. (Cooper, 8/1)

Minnesota’s insurers are proposing to lower or freeze premiums on many health plans — if the federal government approves a state program to subsidize some of the risk. The proposed rate reductions come one year after many plans saw premiums jump by more than 50 percent. In response, Minnesota lawmakers passed a program called “reinsurance” that spends $542 million over two years to pay some high-cost medical bills. The goal was that health insurers, freed from having to pay those costs, would transfer the savings on to their customers in the form of lower premiums. (Montgomery, 7/31)

Iowans who buy their own health insurance could face even bigger premium increases next year if President Donald Trump follows through with a threat to cut off a major stream of Obamacare assistance, the state's sole remaining carrier said Monday. Iowa’s health-insurance market is already teetering, with just one carrier planning to sell individual policies here next year. That carrier, Medica, has proposed raising Iowa premiums by 43 percent in order to keep up with fast-rising costs of caring for chronically ill Iowans. On Monday, Medica’s spokesman said the company would propose another 12 percent to 20 percent in increases on top of that 43 percent if Trump stops payments from a low-profile but important part of Obamacare. (Leys, 7/31)

Even though the U.S. Senate failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, there will potentially be changes to Connecticut’s health care system that may affect tens of thousands of state residents. Depending on what the president and his administration decide in coming days, some people may lose subsidies that would help pay their premiums, co-pays and deductibles next year. (Radelat, 8/1)