Tennesseans will still be able to find coverage in those markets, Tatum Allsep, executive director of the Music Health Alliance, a nonprofit that helps musicians access health care, told the paper, stressing that, “the bottom line is everyone will still have access.”

The BCBS moves are just the latest made by big health care insurers lately. Aetna plans to pull the plug on much of its participation in the Affordable Care Act individual public exchanges for 2017.


Citing a second-quarter pretax loss of $200 million and total pretax losses of more than $430 million since January 2014 in its individual products, “we have decided to reduce our individual public exchange presence in 2017, which will limit our financial exposure moving forward,” Chairman and CEO Mark T. Bertolini said in a statement at the time, adding, “providing affordable, high-quality health care options to consumers is not possible without a balanced risk pool. Fifty-five percent of our individual on-exchange membership is new in 2016, and in the second quarter we saw individuals in need of high-cost care represent an even larger share of our on-exchange population.”

The jockeying for position by insurers is sure to continue. For example, even as it pulls out of some markets, BCBS plans to move into others. In Iowa, for instance, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to offer individual plans on the exchanges in 40 of 99 counties, according to Forbes.

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