Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on the announcement that Phoenix Health Plans, Inc. will be exiting the Obamacare marketplace in Arizona for 2017, leaving only one provider offering plans in Maricopa County – Arizona’s most populous county – next year:

“After requesting an average premium rate increase of 122 percent to coverage massive losses on the Obamacare exchanges, Phoenix Health Plans, Inc. has announced it will no longer offer health insurance plans in the federal marketplace next year. As a result, there will be only one health insurance option in the Obamacare exchanges in Maricopa County – Arizona’s most populous county – impacting about 128,000 people. This is down from the eight health insurance options that Maricopa County residents had in 2016. The news comes after Pinal County became the first county in America to be left without a single provider in the Obamacare marketplace.

“It has always been clear that Obamacare was based on empty promises, and now countless Arizonans are being left to pick up the pieces. This failed law will only continue to crumble unless we repeal and replace it with solutions that put patients back in charge of their health care.”

Yesterday, Senator McCain sent a letter asking the Obama Administration how it planned to address the coverage gap that citizens of Pinal County may experience next year as a result of Aetna’s recent decision to pull out of the Obamacare marketplace.

Senator McCain has introduced legislation that would fully repeal and replace Obamacare with affordable and accessible solutions that put patients back in charge of their health care decisions.

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