ObamaCare was going to launch a new era of non-profit co-ops that would bring down prices. It did, too: 23 of them. Problem: 22 are losing money.
It may take a few more years, but they are doomed.
“If you like your co-op, you can keep your co-op.” Wrong again!
Here are details.
Remember health care co-ops? No, of course you don’t, because unlike some people I could name, you did not spend most of 2009 and 2010 reading white papers, scouring newspapers and attending panels to keep up with the exciting minute-to-minute details of Obamacare’s evolution.
So, health care co-cops. The idea was that the administration would provide the seed capital for nonprofit insurers that would provide an alternative to traditional insurers on the exchange. A sort of “non-public option,” if you will. This August, Robert Pear of the New York Times reported that “most of the insurance co-ops enrolled fewer people than they had predicted, and that 22 of the 23 co-ops lost money last year.” Three have already announced that they were going out of business, and recently they were joined by Health Republic of New York State, which covers more than 200,000 people through its individual and small group policies.
(For the rest of the story, click the link.)
