Mainers shopping on HealthCare.gov can choose from more insurers in 2015. After a plucky start-up overtook the state’s largest health insurer for sign-ups in the marketplace’s first year, a third player left the sidelines and joined the fray.

Maine Community Health Options

The Lewiston-based health insurer captured about 80 percent of HealthCare.gov shoppers in Maine during the first enrollment period. Not bad for a start-up that didn’t exist before the Affordable Care Act, which made taxpayer-funded loans available for the creation of health insurance “co-ops” run by members. While many co-ops in other states failed to reach enrollment targets, MCHO emerged as a model of success, showing up a well-established rival and offering competitive prices.

MCHO is back at it again in 2015 with premium rates largely holding steady. The monthly premium for its best-selling plan fell by about half a percentage point, while the insurer raised rates by 1 percent on one of its less popular plans.

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield

The granddaddy of Maine health insurers, Anthem counted more than 18,000 Mainers as customers in the “individual market” — those who buy their own coverage rather than get benefits through work — before HealthCare.gov launched in 2013. That was nearly twice the enrollment of its next-closest competitor. But even with the backing of corporate parent WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, Anthem enrolled about 20 percent of HealthCare.gov enrollees in Maine for 2014 plans.

In 2015, Anthem could be poised for a comeback. It reduced premium costs by 1.1 percent on average.

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

Harvard Pilgrim is the new kid on the block, offering four plans through the marketplace for 2015. But the nonprofit insurer is no stranger to health reform, having once served as the carrier for Dirigo Health, Maine’s pioneering but now-defunct effort to boost the number of Mainers with health insurance.

With three insurers to choose from, instead of two, Maine consumers are reaping the rewards of a major goal of the ACA, to increase insurer competition, health experts say.

All three insurers, plus Aetna, also will offer health plans outside HealthCare.gov, directly to consumers and through health insurance brokers. Those plans aren’t eligible for federal subsidies.

Supreme uncertainty: The future of the Affordable Care Act in Maine
Here’s what to expect from year two and beyond for the ACA in Maine.

Lewiston insurer is a national ‘rock star’
Today, a year after it started offering health insurance from its Lewiston headquarters in the Bates Mill, Maine Community Health Options has more than 40,000 members.

Profiles of Mainers who bought health insurance through the ACA marketplace:

• Barb Gabri: ‘Rolling the dice’ without insurance
• Charlene Brousseau: Sticking with the ACA
• Sherri Tripp: ‘I think it’s wonderful’
• Blake Pooler: Finally insured, for $160 a month
• $22 a month: ‘I am totally flabbergasted’
• Business owner: ACA offered another option

You’ve seen how the Affordable Care Act affected other Mainers in 2014. How about you? Good, bad or neutral — share your ACA stories

Resources:

• How the ACA changed your insurance
• Who are the health insurers competing for Mainers’ money
• Where to get help
• Tips, hints and other things you need to know
• Get insurance: The step-by-step
• Answers to frequently asked questions
• Know the lingo
• ACA by the numbers

From ‘hellish’ to health care: The ACA in Maine one year later
A one-year checkup on how the ACA is doing in Maine and a subsidy calculator can be found at SunJournal.com/ACA201

Affordable Care Act 101: We break down the ACA, what it does and what it requires you to do.