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Board hears alarm about single‑carrier individual market and access problems for island residents
Summary
Councilperson Fuller and staff warned San Juan County faces a single individual insurance carrier (Ambetter) after other insurers withdrew; they urged state pressure on Ambetter to contract with mainland providers to protect continuity of care for island residents.
Councilperson Fuller told the Board of Health on Dec. 10 that the county’s individual insurance market is at imminent risk of being served by a single carrier, Ambetter, after Regents and Lifewise notified the insurance commissioner in May they would leave the county. Fuller said the county and hospital district only learned details later in the year and that Ambetter’s provider network for mainland specialist care remains limited, potentially forcing island residents to travel farther for care or lose continuity with current providers.
Fuller said she spoke with the CEO of UW Medicine and health policy staff in the governor’s office and the state insurance commission to press Ambetter to contract with providers in Anacortes, Mount Vernon and Bellingham to preserve access for San Juan County residents. She described the situation as affecting “a few hundred people” on Lopez alone and urged that the county collect constituent stories and escalate the issue to state officials.
Board members called the situation urgent and warned that an unstable market could leave residents with reduced access and higher costs; they asked county staff to continue advocacy and monitoring and to inform county leadership and the manager about local impacts. Chair Paulson warned that the market could “crash” in about 20 days if no solution emerges and asked partners to keep pressing state actors and insurers.
