I've been doing a little research, and my opinion on this is that Mutual was likely forced by government regulation to leave the market. Here is a comment from one of their spokesmen...
"Nolan said state governments require more than 1,000 specific medical coverages on policies sold in their states, and many have agencies that control premium rates that companies can charge." ...."ill-advised legislation and policy played a significant role in creating the situation we face today." ....."Mutual of Omaha delayed this decision as long as possible," Nolan said, "staying in this market longer than most of our peers and working proactively on the legislative, regulatory and product fronts."
When a government MANDATES that an individual health insurance company MUST cover certain things or that they MUST charge a certain rate....ie..community rating...., these kind of mandates cause insurance companies to have to operate at a loss, driving them out of business. I am sure that if the individual market would have remained profitable for them, they would have remained in the Market, but Mutual had a large number of clients in states such as Vermont and NY, and when community rating was enacted in those states, IMO, Mutual had to make the decision to leave. They did not have enough business in the other states to remain profitable, so they had to leave altogether.
As I stated in one of my earlier posts, when "community rating" or "price controls" are forced on an insurance company, they will eventually be forced to leave the market. We can't blame the insurance company for that....It is the government legislation and mandates that drive them out of business.