United HealthCare of Washington Inc history

That month, on the heels of the HMO America deal, United HealthCare agreed to make its first divestiture since 1987, selling its Des Moines-based health plan with about 26,000 members.

In September 1988 United sold its interest in Peak Health Care Corporation for $41.5 million and raised an additional $31.6 million through a secondary public stock offering.

At the same time, the company launched a new expansion and acquisition plan under the direction of Doctor William McGuire, a former Peak Health Care president who was promoted to United HealthCare president in 1989.

By the close of 1990 United HealthCare, with about 1.5 million members enrolled in its health plans, was serving more patients than any other independent HMO company.

By the time United HealthCare closed its books on 1991 it was trading on the New York Stock Exchange and had more than doubled its previous year's income to $74.8 million on revenues of $847.1 million.

The deal was the fifth and largest acquisition of an HMO by United HealthCare since 1991 and gave United HealthCare 338,000 HMO members in Ohio, or 20 percent of the state's HMO enrollment.

In early 1993 United HealthCare became Ohio's preeminent HMO when it paid $100 million to acquire Western Ohio Health Care Corporation, a 185,000-member health plan and the largest HMO in Dayton, Ohio.

In late 1993, with health care reform hitting the national spotlight, United HealthCare appeared poised to take advantage of increasing numbers of public and private sector customers and providers.

When the exchange began offering health plans for 2014, premiums were essentially an educated guess, as there was no ACA-compliant individual market claims experience on which to base rates.

For perspective, here’s a look back at enrollment in Washington Healthplanfinder since the exchange opened for business in 2014:

The federal government funded the Washington Healthplanfinder in 2014.

Following President Obama’s announcement that carriers could extend existing plans into 2014 if states allowed it, Kreidler and Inslee were quick to declare that Washington would not allow non-compliant plans to continue into 2014.

In 2015, marketplace operations were funded by the state with $21 million that was previously earmarked for the state’s high-risk insurance pool, and with an additional tax on premiums on plans sold through the exchange.

Regence had previously participated in the Washington exchange, but had exited at the end of 2017.

And Community Health Plan of Washington planned to exit the individual market altogether at the end of 2017.

By 2018, even Kaiser had stopped offering SHOP plans in Washington, so there are no longer SHOP plans for sale in the state.

That was eventually remedied before the start of open enrollment, but lawmakers also wanted to address the issue in the 2018 legislative session.

And when rates were initially filed for 2018, there were two counties where no insurers had proposed plans.

And there were seven counties in Washington where there were no bronze plans available in the exchange for 2018: Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Skamania, and Stevens.

Every area of the state had on-exchange options available in 2018, although nine counties (out of 39 in the state) had just one insurer offering plans: Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grays Harbor, Island, Pend Oreille, San Juan, Skagit, and Skamania.

2019: Enrollment dropped in 2019, with 220,765 people purchasing plans during open enrollment.

Premera Blue Cross: 8.67% decrease (following a 6 percent decrease in 2020)