Eight of 11 Remaining Obamacare Health Insurance Co-ops Likely to Fail By Year’s End

Following the Obama administration’s dismal failure at propping up green energy companies, they decided to try their luck in the healthcare industry.  They created 23 taxpayer-funded health insurance co-ops for people to sign up for under Obamacare.  The plans were largely unpopular and people strongly preferred their private insurance plans.

But the government made it so expensive to purchase private plans that people were forced into the federally-funded exchanges — much like what the administration is planning in regard to retirement accounts.  12 out of the 23 co-ops have already failed.  And now a new report says that eight of the remaining 11 are likely to default by the end of 2016.

“In general, there’s not a turnaround in sight. The same problems that plagued them before are continuing,” Thomas P. Miller, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who previously served as the senior health economist for the congressional Joint Economic Committee, told TheDCNF.

Obamacare advocates hoped the tax-funded non-profit co-ops would successfully compete with for-profit commercial insurance companies and drive down healthcare costs and eventually become permanent fixtures in the marketplace.

State insurance regulators are already liquidating in the 12 states where the co-ops already have closed their doors.

In some states like New York, hospitals and doctors are facing hundreds of millions in losses that will not be covered by the assets of the failed co-op, Health Republic of New York.

Data compiled by TheDCNF based on the co-op 2015 annual reports suggest eight are likely to default and only four of them will be in business by year’s end.

The co-op documents obtained by TheDCNF were annual reports filed before state insurance regulators. The reports must accurately depict the financial health of the co-ops and are current through the end of calendar year 2015. The annual reports became available to the public in mid-March.

The Department of Financial Services of New York is also conducting an official investigation into Health Republic, alleging the co-op did not accurately describe its financial condition to regulators.

Earlier this year, Mandy Cohen, a top official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), told Congress eight co-ops are facing special scrutiny because of their poor financial statuses.

She said an “enhanced oversight” program is in place for some troubled co-ops and others are operating under a federally imposed “corrective action plan.”

In 2016, America has a choice to elect Hillary Clinton — who will continue Obama’s failed strategy of gambling on government startups, or Bernie Sanders — who is likely to increase government spending on futile endeavors.  Or they could put a conservative in the White House who is much more likely to tighten the purse strings.

Source: The Daily Caller