The Hill reports the failure of most of the Affordable Care Act’s co-ops “is disrupting coverage for thousands of enrollees and raising questions about whether regulators could have acted earlier to head off some of the problems.”
Four of them have failed so far this year.
The article says the Obama Administration admits the co-ops are having issues. Examples:
- In March, CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt told a Senate hearing that “a co-op in Iowa and Nebraska, called CoOportunity, should have been shut down before it entered 2015.”
- “Connecticut’s insurance department…said that its commissioner, as well as officials from other states, ‘personally met with HHS Secretary [Sylvia] Burwell to seek a more workable’ system,” but no solution has been reached.
- Thousands of Ohio residents are being forced to find new health coverage because their insurer, InHealth Mutual, one of the Affordable Care Act’s co-ops, is being liquidated. InHealth Mutual provided coverage for about 22,000 Ohioans, who may have to pay higher premiums for new plans.
