In New Mexico, on the other hand, insurance regulators did not allow people to keep their old plans and required any insurer
that sold plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace to offer them in every county.
John G. Franchini, the state’s superintendent of insurance, has also negotiated rates with insurers,
even denying a 52 percent increase requested by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Mexico for 2016.
But Blue Cross plans have generally been doing better in the marketplaces,
and Health Care Service Corporation, which offers plans in Oklahoma, New Mexico and three other states, is losing less money.
Uncertainty about the subsidies, which are a critical financial underpinning of the law, may drive more insurers out of the market — leaving Oklahoma with no health plans in the marketplace —
and raise premiums significantly higher for those that stay.
And it wants plans under the law to be sold not through the federal marketplace,
but through a local program called Insure Oklahoma, which has provided subsidized coverage to a small subset of low-income residents here since before the health law took effect.
Even when other insurers offered plans through the Affordable Care Act marketplace
during its first few years, Blue Cross scooped up by far the most customers.
In New Mexico, several local insurers have long competed on the individual market,
but Blue Cross has been the dominant player in Oklahoma for years, and is now the only insurer offering plans on the exchange.
