Why do only 2 health insurers sell plans on Vermont’s exchange?

Over the weekend, Andrew Garland, an executive at BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont, found himself at Home Depot staring down the array of tools that “all seemed to do the same thing,” he said. DeWalt? Milwaukee? It’s a version of the choice the more than 60,000 Vermonters who buy their insurance on the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace are making this fall, as open enrollment gets underway. Vermonters have until Dec. 28 to sign up for 2027 plans and until Dec. 15 to sign up for coverage that begins on Jan. 1. Though the marketplace hosts an array of options, they notably come from only two insurers: BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont and MVP Health Care. So why is that? And how unusual is Vermont in having so few insurers in the marketplace? Is the fact that there are so few marketplace insurers what drives the high premiums Vermonters pay for marketplace plans? And is it really such a bad thing to have so few options?

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.