Michigan: And the hits just keep on coming...Ambetter by Meridian pulling out of Metro Detroit Area as well

Just a few days ago I reported that the final, approved 2026 individual market rate filings in Michigan have been published to the SERFF database, for an overall weighted average rate increase of 20.1% marketwide:

This hasn't been officially published by the Michigan Dept. of Insurance & Financial Services yet, and technically speaking the filings aren't 100% approved yet, but 10 out of 11 filings have been moved to "complete pending form review" which I think just means that a supervisor has to give the paperwork a final once-over to make sure there are no typos etc.

*Also, Meridian Health Plan (which holds an impressive 30% of the total ACA indy market in MI when you include the carriers dropping out) is listed as "draft decision forwarded to Manager" so if any of them end up being off I'd guess it would be that one.

...It turns out that besides Physicians Health Plan, which had already announced that they were dropping out of the Michigan market next year (in fact the entire carrier is being dissolved), two other carriers are pulling out of the MI individual market as well.

The other two carriers dropping out of Michigan's individual market are Molina Healthcare (which has around 36,000 enrollees) and HAP CareSource (with roughly 18,800 current enrollees).

This resulted in the final 2026 rate increase spreadsheet looking like so:

However, it turns out that there's a fourth Michigan carrier partially pulling out as well: Meridian Health Plan of Michigan (aka Ambetter by Meridian).

I was given a heads up on this by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, who said that Meridian, which has a whopping 34% of the total ACA market share in Michigan, will no longer be offering plans in Wayne, Macomb, Oakland or Monroe Counties...otherwise known as the entire Greater Detroit Metropolitan Area.

I haven't found any official confirmation of this, but my source seems reliable, and I was able to find unofficial confirmations via this Instagram clip as well as this Facebook post.

MRW Solutions Group, LLC's Post

Belleville ,Van Buren, Sumpter community sharing ·

MRW Solutions Group, LLC

Friday Plan Exit News Drops:

"IMPORTANT UPDATE

Ambetter Health is Exiting Detroit, Michigan for Plan Year 2026

Beginning January 1, 2026, Ambetter Health will not be offering health plans in Detroit, Michigan. As a result, Ambetter Health will be exiting Macomb, Monroe, Oakland and Wayne counties for plan year 2026.

The last day of coverage for client(s) currently enrolled in an Ambetter from Meridian Marketplace (on-exchange) or off-exchange plan in Detroit is December 31, 2025. It’s important for members to continue making their premium payments to ensure their coverage remains active through the end of the year.

Impacted members will receive a communication from Ambetter from Meridian with information about the Detroit, Michigan exit."

I'm assuming this late-breaking development also explains the unusual "draft decision forwarded to Manager" status in their SERFF filing.

It's not unusual for carriers to pull out of a county or two here & there, and as I already noted, three other Michigan ACA carriers have already announced that they're pulling out of the state entirely. However, all three of those carriers combined only add up to around 79,000 enrollees.

By contrast, Ambetter by Meridian has 156,000 enrollees alone...and while they still plan on offering policies in numerous other Michigan counties, the four announced above make up 41% of the total population of the state.

Unfortunately I don't know whether Meridian is a major or minor player specifically within the Metro Detroit area or not (it's possible that most of their enrollment is in more rural counties), but assuming that, say, 50% of their enrollees live in those 4 counties, that would mean 157,000 Michigan ACA enrollees (nearly 30%) will have to find another carrier for healthcare coverage in 2026.