An article from 
Dive Brief
The insurer’s Wellpoint subsidiary is expanding its ACA footprint for the 2025 coverage year, likely in a bid to capture enrollees who recently lost Medicaid coverage.
Published Sept. 9, 2024
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Dive Brief:
- Elevance subsidiary Wellpoint is launching new Affordable Care Act plans in Florida, Maryland and Texas, as the health insurer continues investing in an increasingly lucrative business line.
- The expansion, which Elevance shared in a series of recent press releases, swells Wellpoint’s existing footprint of individual and family plans in the states for the 2025 coverage year.
- Executives told investors earlier this year that Elevance would be launching more ACA plans in a bid to capture more enrollees headed to the exchanges after losing Medicaid coverage, as millions of Americans lose the safety-net insurance amid ongoing eligibility checks.
Dive Insight:
Wellpoint, formerly known as Amerigroup, offers Medicaid, Medicare and commercial health plans in markets where Elevance doesn’t offer Blue Cross and Blue Shield branded products.
Insurers have been building out their ACA products amid record growth in the exchanges. A historic 21.3 million people signed up for ACA coverage by the end of open enrollment this year.
In Maryland, for example, almost 214,000 people enrolled in the state-run marketplace for 2024, up from 182,000 the prior year. That’s the largest increase in the state’s history, Darrell Gray, the president of Wellpoint in Maryland, said in the payer’s press release.
More Americans are turning to the exchanges because of more generous premium subsidies for the plans put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. People losing Medicaid coverage as states continue rechecking eligibility for the safety-net insurance program has driven growth in the ACA rolls.
Elevance reported $2.3 billion in profit in its most recent financial quarter. However, the Indianapolis-based payer dropped its long-term growth forecasts for its health insurance business, citing higher than expected membership losses from Medicaid unwinding, along with slowing growth in Medicare Advantage.
Yet, unwinding is also a growth opportunity, according to management. CEO Gail Boudreaux told investors on a July earnings call that Elevance would be expanding its ACA plans in areas with high levels of Medicaid disenrollments to capture more individuals that turn to the exchanges after they lose Medicaid coverage.
Emily Olsen 
Ricky Zipp 
Susanna Vogel