{"id":88849,"date":"2017-06-07T08:24:42","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=88849"},"modified":"2017-06-07T08:24:42","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T13:24:42","slug":"anthem-pulling-out-of-20-ohio-counties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/06\/07\/anthem-pulling-out-of-20-ohio-counties\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthem pulling out of 20 Ohio counties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it is pulling out of 20 counties in Ohio, including Van Wert and Paulding counties, leaving those counties with essentially no available individual healthcare insurance options.<\/p>\n

In the wake of the news, both of Ohio’s U.S. senators, as well as Fifth U.S. House District\u00a0Representative Bob Latta, made statements on the announcement.<\/p>\n

Predictably, Latta and U.S. Senator Rob Portman, both Republicans, blamed Anthem\u2019s leaving on problems related to Obamacare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of Obamacare continues to harm Ohio families,\u201d he said. \u201cWith this announcement, many constituents in the district I represent will face the prospect of having no available options to purchase insurance, while others will be forced to choose from only one option.<\/p>\n

Latta also talked about Congressional efforts to repeal Obamacare and create a better healthcare program.<\/p>\n

\"Anthem\u201cThe current system is unsustainable,\u201d he noted. \u201cI voted to repeal Obamacare and replace it with patient-centered health care that would give more flexibility to states, lower costs, and increase choice for patients in order to provide desperately needed relief for Ohioans.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement is a wake-up call — Obamacare is broken and will only get worse if nothing is done,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Senator Portman also put the onus on Obamacare for Anthem\u2019s leaving the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout true competition and choice in the market, we will never be able to lower health costs for families and small businesses,\u201d Portman said. \u201cThis is one more reason why the status quo on health care is unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portman noted his belief that the Affordable Care Act has \u201cfailed to meet the promises that were made to Ohio families. We can, and must, do better than Obamacare, but we should do it in a way that protects the most vulnerable in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also predictably, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) blamed the Trump Administration for what Anthem called the \u201cuncertainty\u201d created by plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and President Trump\u2019s repeated threats to stop Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR) payments that reduce out-of-pocket costs for Ohioans buying insurance on the individual market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dangerous game President Trump and Washington politicians are playing just caused 70,000 paying customers in Ohio to lose their insurance, and it will continue raising prices for everyone else; it\u2019s got to stop,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe are talking about people\u2019s lives their ability to get cancer treatment, afford life-saving medicines, and take their kids to the doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of using working families as bargaining chips and driving up prices across the market, we need to work together to lower costs and make healthcare work better for everyone,\u201d Brown added.<\/p>\n

In addition to Van Wert, other counties affected by Anthem\u2019s leaving — all smaller, more rural counties — include Auglaize, Mercer, Logan, Hancock, Crawford, Knox, Holmes, Coshocton, Harrison, Muskingum, Guernsey, Perry, Morgan, Noble, Hocking, Vinton, Jackson, and Lawrence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/submitted information Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced that it is pulling out of 20 counties in Ohio, including Van Wert and Paulding counties, leaving those counties with essentially no available individual healthcare insurance options. In the wake of the news, both of Ohio’s U.S. senators, as well as Fifth U.S. House District\u00a0Representative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 04:13:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}