Covered California: More Health Insurance Carriers Can Sell Individual Policies In Underserved Areas

The Covered California board of directors has adopted a new policy that will allow more health insurance carriers to sell in areas of the state where there are few options now.

The exchange had a rule not to allow new insurers into the market until 2017, with a couple of exceptions. The new policy will allow health insurance companies that are already established in the state to apply to sell individual coverage in underserved areas.

Those areas include Northern California, the Central Coast, the Central Valley and Mono and Inyo counties. Nearly 30,000 Covered California subscribers in more than 22 counties have only one insurer option in the exchange.