Today's Houston Chronicle article explains why the individually insured pool is left with few choices and extreme rate increases. "Last week, the Texas Department of Insurance “allowed to stand” rate increases of nearly 60 percent for three Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas exchange plans, agency spokesman Ben Gonzalez said. Federal data show the plans could affect more than half a million Texans. Texas is one of five states that does not do its own rate review. It can check plans only for compliance to state law and to make sure they are “actuarially justified,” Gonzalez said. Rate reviews for Texas exchange plans are done at the federal level, but Stacey Pogue, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities, said little can be done to stop rate hikes. Most details of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas rate filing remain sealed as the insurer marked it “confidential.” The Chronicle has asked the state’s attorney general to make it public." In one of three Texas counties next year, Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be the only insurer available on the exchange. In April, UnitedHealthcare announced it would not offer any exchange plans in the state next year. Four months later, Aetna said it, too, was leaving the exchange in Texas. Then came the announcement from regional insurer Scott & White Health Plan that it would offer individual plans only off the exchange next year. Cigna, in a Sept. 30 email to the Chronicle, confirmed it “will not participate on the Texas public marketplace in 2017” but will offer plans off the exchange. Humana has not made public its final determination for Texas, but a company spokesman said in an email last week that it would have a “reduced presence.” Customers across the Houston area began receiving letters from Humana in recent days that an off-network individual preferred provider plan, or PPO, allowing a wide network of doctors and hospitals is being discontinued. That high-premium, high-deductible plan came into the local market late last year, scooping up many customers who had lost similar coverage from Blue Cross and Blue Shield. All of the insurers have cited losses tied to the Affordable Care Act as the reason behind cost-cutting decisions, including exiting the exchange or narrowing networks. Health Care Service Corp. said it lost $1.5 billion on its individual ACA plans in 2015. But the nonprofit’s overall earnings rose 13 percent from the previous year to more than $31 billion. The net loss in 2015 was $66 million — substantially less than the $282 million net loss for 2014, financial records show. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas lost $321 million last year in the individual market. That is also less than the $400 million it lost in 2014, according to a statement from the company." Unless we call our legislators as well as sign and share this petition, we will have no voice. Please take a moment and share this petition.