LifeWise Health Plan

The health insurer intends to exit the Oregon market Dec. 31.

Current Customers Will Continue to Be Served During Transition

The new Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace is targeting counties in northwest Oregon to get at the 116,000 people who could be buying plans on the federal exchange but remain uninsured. While some consumers may re-enroll automatically, massive price spikes at Moda Health and Lifewise may cause a massive shift in the market as consumers opt for cheaper plans at Kaiser, the Oregon Health CO-OP and Providence.

As people scramble to make the Dec. 15 deadline to sign up for healthcare.gov so they can have coverage starting Jan. 1, it’s become quite apparent that those living in rural counties are having to pay substantially more for their insurance.

Looking at the executive compensation among health insurance executives in 2012, John Stellmon, who retired from Regence last April, was the highest paid, earning $1.8 million, a 537% increase from 2011

However, PacificSource and ODS reported the strongest membership growth, while Regence barely grew and Kaiser lost members