Health insurance companies have increased the amount of borrowed money on their statutory balance sheets by almost 100 percent since the first quarter of 2011, according to A.M.'s Best Special Report titled, "Health Insurers Increase Borrowing Due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Impact."
Here six things to know:
1. Payers borrowed almost $6.4 billion at the end of 2015, a stark increase from $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2011.
2. The top 10 payers used almost 50 percent of their borrowing capacity as of the end of 2015.
3. Many payers have increased their borrowing capacity because of losses suffered from ACA exchanges. UnitedHealth reported it expected losses totaling $1 billion from participating in ACA marketplaces, leaving the payer to exit ACA exchanges in Georgia and Arkansas in April.
4. In May, Humana gave notice it may leave some ACA exchanges in 2017 after finding many of their customers were sicker than expected and struggling to attract healthy, younger enrollees.
5. Aetna lost more than $100 million on the ACA exchanges last year.
6. From 2011 to 2015, the average borrowed-money-to-capital ratio for health operating companies increased from 3.2 percent to 5.2 percent.
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