3 health insurers dropping coverage for 200,000 in Michigan

By Chad Livengood and Melissa Nann Burke, MediaNews Group

Three health insurance companies with base operations in Metro Detroit are mostly pulling out of Michigan’s individual market, forcing more than 200,000 residents to find coverage with other carriers amid record-setting premium increases made worse by expiring tax credits that helped defray the costs.

Health Alliance Plan, the insurance arm of Henry Ford Health; Molina Healthcare; and Meridian Health Plan are largely exiting the individual marketplace set up through the 15-year-old Affordable Care Act, as federal tax credits that heavily subsidized premiums for middle-income households expire at year’s end.

Health insurers still selling individual health insurance plans are warning of a chaotic open enrollment period that began S