Costco To Sell Individual Health Insurance, Mortgages

Very interesting. I wonder if the reason why these plans are limited to these select few states is because Aetna and other insurance companies are relatively less burdened in these states by the onerous mandates and other burdensome regulations imposed on health insurers without regard to cost to the policy holders and the companies..

CEO's voted Michigan as the 47th worst state to do business in. It was in the papers last week.

I don't think that would be a factor. If Aetna is willing to sell policies itself in those states, then there are no state-imposed rules that would make it less desirable to do so via Costco. It appears that this is simply Costco setting up a group plan no differently than anyone else, such as an employer. If Aetna is happy to sell to other group plans in those states, why not this one? 

I suspect the reason more likely is simply one of Costco ramping up and testing. They simply did so in those states first. They probably will wait and see how it goes, using those first ones as a test, and then expand to other states. And if the early states work out well and with a lot of people signing up, that only gives Costco more leverage to negotiate a better plan when they expend to new states.