Not Dead Yet: Obamacare Insurers Are Hanging In There
Despite President Trump’s best efforts, the Obamacare market hasn’t imploded yet. While Thursday’s decisions to cut off government funding and invite competition from flimsier, cheaper plans will jostle a vulnerable market, many of the major insurance companies say they will remain in the state marketplaces next year.

Mr. Trump has made his disdain for the Affordable Care Act clear in a variety of policies dating to his first week in office, and for months had threatened to stop paying insurers subsidies that help them provide lower deductibles and co-payments to low-income customers. Because of the uncertainty, most states had allowed insurers to set high enough prices for 2018 to account for the risk of cutoff subsidies. That means they are largely protected from the consequences of President Trump’s decision to eliminate the payments.

But not all. While many large carriers like Centene may be willing to stay, others are nervous, and their regulators were considering options Friday. New competition from plans exempt from the A.C.A. rules and much higher rates resulting from the loss of funding are making some insurers rethink their commitment to 2018. “They’re sharpening their pencils now to see if they are going to stay in or not,” said David M. Dillon, a fellow with the Society of Actuaries.

In addition to cutting off the subsidies, the president signed an executive order Thursday that may pave the way for competing plans that would be subject to fewer rules and could draw healthy customers out of the Obamacare markets. The administration has also cut back on its marketplace advertising budget by 90 percent, and slashed funding to groups that help customers understand their options and sign up for insurance.

“It’s a deliberate pattern,” said Chet Burrell, the chief executive of CareFirst, which is faced with a $50 million loss in Maryland if regulators do not allow it to increase its rates to make up for the loss of funding. “With active sabotage, this makes it more unstable.”

Mr. Burrell says CareFirst expects to continue offering coverage in the individual market regardless of what the Maryland regulator decides. But he said the administration’s actions “create profound instability and uncertainty for the future.”