United Healthcare has confirmed that it will no longer offer plans in New Jersey through the Health Insurance Marketplace in 2017.

The products, sold as Oxford Health plans, will remain in effect for 2016, but enrollees will need to either switch to a United product in the individual, non-marketplace arena or switch carriers.

NJHA recently hosted Paul Marden, CEO of United Healthcare New Jersey, at a constituency group meeting. While unable to address whether marketplace plans would continue to be available in New Jersey, Marden did speak to the challenges United has faced in the marketplace, specifically those surrounding funding for the risk mitigation programs established under the Affordable Care Act. These challenges were identified as one of the driving factors in United's decision.

United Healthcare has a relatively small percentage of the New Jersey market. As of fourth quarter 2015, United represented 5.18 percent of the individual market enrollment overall, and only 4.4 percent of the marketplace enrollment. The increase in individual market enrollment overall and new market entrants continue to cause shifts in the individual market landscape.