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UnitedHealth Group Inc. told brokers that it has filed paperwork to offer plans in just six states’ health-law marketplaces next year, providing the most complete picture so far of its previously announced widespread withdrawal. The biggest U.S. health insurer said in April that it would pull out of all but a handful of the 34 states where it was selling the Affordable Care Act exchange plans, in the wake of mounting losses in that business. Since then, the insurer’s 2017 exchange decisions have been emerging piecemeal as various state regulators disclosed that UnitedHealth wouldn’t be in their exchanges next year. (Wilde Mathews, 5/31)

Critics of the Affordable Care Act have seized on the company’s exit, state by state, as further evidence the health-law insurance exchanges aren’t sustainable financially and that premiums will rise even higher for consumers. The Obama administration has countered that the number of health plans offering exchange policies has increased since the 2014 launch, and that it expects the individual market will continue to stabilize as adjustments are made. (Terhune, 5/31)

United’s move will have almost no effect on Covered California, as the insurer has only about 1,200 members this year, accounting for less than one tenth of 1% of the marketplace’s 1.4 million consumers. United’s current customers will continue to have coverage through the end of this year. But they will have to select new coverage for 2017 during the open enrollment period this fall. “We will learn in July whether any new plans will join Covered California or if any of our existing plans will expand their coverage areas, as they did in 2016,” said Covered California spokesman James Scullary. (Levey, 5/31)

Minnetonka-based United currently competes on exchanges in 34 states, but it announced in April that it would sell coverage next year in just a handful because of financial losses. UnitedHealthcare is the nation's largest health insurer, but the company was new to California's exchange in January. (Snowbeck, 5/31)

UnitedHealthcare will stop offering Affordable Care Act plans in Illinois in 2017, the Tribune confirmed Tuesday. The departure of the insurance company will reduce the number of coverage options for consumers in 27 counties. (Sachdev, 5/31)