Carper Statement on Aetna’s Exit from Delaware’s Health Insurance Marketplace

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement on Aetna’s announcement that it will no longer offer health insurance coverage through Delaware’s health insurance marketplace.

“Today, we learned that Aetna is pulling out of all ACA marketplaces in 2018, leaving Delaware with only one insurer in its individual health insurance market. This will mean that more than 12,000 Delawareans will have to find a new insurance plan and our hardworking families will have fewer options and harder choices to make about their health insurance coverage.

“Instead of following through on his promise to ensure that all Americans would have better and less expensive health insurance, the Trump Administration has done just the opposite by sabotaging the ACA insurance marketplaces in any possible way. Adding to nearly a decade of failed repeal efforts by House and Senate Republicans, the president has ordered the repeal of the ACA by regulation and repeatedly threatened cost-sharing reductions for patients. This continued assault on the ACA’s insurance marketplaces, just when they were becoming financially stable, has sowed confusion and fear among Americans about whether they will be able to access health care.

“For years, we struggled to reform our health care system so that every family has access to affordable, high-quality health care. By passing the ACA, we took a tremendous step toward making good on that promise. However, I’ve long said the ACA isn’t perfect, and that we should work together on a bipartisan basis to make it better. Unfortunately, the health care bill passed by the House Republicans last week would weaken consumer protections and make health insurance premiums and deductibles more expensive.

“But I’m an optimist, and I’m not going to give up. I ask our president and my colleagues in Congress to see that they are not doing right by the people who sent them to Washington. I ask them to change course. Something this big and this important should not be done on a partisan basis. If they’ll meet us halfway, they’ll find earnest partners in me and my fellow Democrats.”

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