With trepidation manifested by many business owners, wary of how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will impact their employee benefits offerings, large health insurers are similarly leery of whether they want to join the health insurance exchanges being set up by the government and states.
According to Reuters, executives for the country's four largest health insurers indicate that they are being circumspect about joining the health insurance marketplaces, with providers saying they will sell coverage in less than a third of those that have already been formed.
Company executives point to several questionable issues that help illustrate why they have pause, Reuters reports, including a lack of clarity about what prices will be and what they will and will not be able to sell.
"We do think the uptake may be slower than maybe people thought six months ago or a year ago in terms of what is going on in the first year with the exchanges," said Shawn Guerin, chief financial officer for a major insurer.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court deeming the ACA to be constitutional, there are still a number of lawmakers opposed to the bill who say the bill should be rescinded because it violates the commerce clause under Article I. Opponents say consumers can not be required to purchase coverage.
