The big health news last week was that the Affordable Care Act appears to be losing steam and the Obama administration is predicting a modest increase at best in the number of Americans who will enroll with private insurers next year.
It's hard to keep up with the failure of ObamaCare co-ops these days. As IBD noted yesterday, a total of six of these nonprofit, government-subsidized insurance companies had gone belly up. Today, two more got added to the list.
Colorado HealthOP announced that it would cease operations at the end of the year. According to the Associated Press, Colorado HealthOP was the largest insurer in the state, with 83,000 members. Other insurers in the state have requested massive rate increases for their ObamaCare plans, ranging up to 59%.
The same day, Health Republic, which covers 15,000 people in Oregon, said that it too would not last past the end of this year.
Last year, Colorado HealthOP lost $23 million, and Health Republic lost $14 million, according to an inspector general report released this summer.
ObamaCare started these nonprofits in hopes that they would provide price competition to commercial insurance plans. Of the original 23 in operation, only 15 remain. It's possible that more will announce plans to close before ObamaCare's open enrollment starts in November.
Colorado HealthOP got $72.3 million in startup loans from the federal government. It claims to be "well on its way" to paying some of the money back.
All told, the eight co-ops that have failed have put about $900 million in government loans at risk.
