Health Alliance to end all ACA Marketplace plans by 2026

URBANA, Ill. (WAND) — Champaign-based insurance company Health Alliance will be ending all insurance plans other than Medicare Advantage by Jan. 1 2026, according to parent company Carle Health.

In the announcement, Carle said that all health plans will maintain operations through 2025.

“Our commitment to the communities we serve requires a constant evaluation of the organization so we can continue to set the standard of excellence in healthcare,” James C. Leonard, MD, Carle Health President and Chief Executive Officer said. “Carle Health has had to make decisions that enable us to better focus on our core services, built around the health and wellbeing of patients. We recognize that in today’s health insurance environment, our health plans no longer successfully compete and Carle Health must effectively utilize our resources to meet the changing needs of customers.”

Membership information will continue to be available through the Hally/MyChart member platform beyond the end of the year.

Too small to compete against its bigger competitors, Health Alliance will close at the end of year, Carle announced Tuesday.

“The insurance business has been become incredibly difficult,” Leonard said. “The bigger you are, the more leverage you have. In the last five years, we’ve had lot of difficulty making it because we’re too small.”

The planned closure means roughly 187,000 people insured by Health Alliance will have to find coverage elsewhere.

He said the status of another 45,000 covered by Health Alliance’s Medicare Advantage program remains undetermined.

Health Alliance, nearly 50 years old, is the only provider-owned health plan in Illinois.

Carle has been trying to sort out the Health Alliance issue for the past year. Competitors showed “very little interest” in buying Health Alliance and that efforts to keep the insurance business afloat distracted from maintaining quality medical services.

There is no idea what companies — United Health Care, Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield — will step in to fill the market void created by the absence of Health Alliance.

But he described the insurance marketplace as “dynamic” and said whatever insurers step in will include Carle medical services within their options.