Conn. Gives Private Medicaid Insurers the Boot
The “insurance capital of the world” is only the second state to assume the health program’s financial responsibility in the last decade.
As nearly two dozen states are pushing Medicaid patients into privately managed health plans, Connecticut is pulling them back into state-financed plans. This year, Connecticut became only the second state this millennium to stop paying insurance giants like UnitedHealthcare to run Medicaid and start paying for it themselves, according to Kaiser Health News. Connecticut is making the switch, according to officials, because the for-profit companies failed to offer lower costs and better care, diverted too many resources to administration and profits, and overcharged the state by nearly $50 million a year, according to a 2009 state report. Although the move is meant to save the state money, officials plan to spend the same amount on Medicaid this year because it’s adding 150,000 people to its rolls. Oklahoma dropped its managed care health plans in 2005 and according to KHN, has no regrets.
