Anthem weighing Obamacare individual market in each state

[May 24, 2017]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anthem Inc is looking at each state to determine what its participation in the Obamacare individual market will be next year given the political and regulatory uncertainty, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish said on Wednesday.

Swedish, speaking at the UBS Global Healthcare Conference, said that the No. 2 health insurer is talking to regulators in the 14 states where it sells BlueCross BlueShield plans about its participation: staying in the market either in total or in part, or "surgically extracting" itself.

"We would prefer not to extract ourselves if we can get the math to work," Swedish said.

(Reporting by Caroline Humer)

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