Largest Obamacare Healthcare Co-op to Close

Largest Obamacare Healthcare Co-op to Close

The financial benefits and savings touted by Obama and his allies on the road to Obamacare’s passage are still failing to live up to their promise.

In fact, the largest non-profit co-op created under the law is about to fold.

Anna Wilde Mathews of the Wall Street Journal:

Regulators to Shut Down Health Republic Insurance of New York

Regulators will shut down Health Republic Insurance of New York, the largest of the nonprofit cooperatives created under the Affordable Care Act, in the latest sign of the financial pressures facing many insurers that participated in the law’s new marketplaces.

The insurer lost about $52.7 million in the first six months of this year, on top of a $77.5 million loss in 2014, according to regulatory filings. The move to wind down its operations was made jointly by officials from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; New York’s state insurance exchange, known as New York State of Health; and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

In a statement, Health Republic said it was “deeply disappointed” by the outcome, and pointed to “challenges placed on us by the structure of the CO-OP program.”

Health Republic has about 215,000 members, with about half holding individual plans and half under small-business coverage, a spokesman for the insurer said.

The regulators said they chose to take action before the exchange’s November open enrollment period, when individuals can choose coverage with a new insurer.

This is by no means an isolated incident:

The shuttering of Health Republic, at least the fourth to falter among the ACA’s original 23 co-ops around the country, reflects the losses many insurers are seeing in their business related to the health law’s exchanges, which are particularly acute for small plans without deep pockets or diversified lines of business.

Here’s a TV commercial released by Health Republic Insurance of New York in November of 2014 which highlights all the savings enjoyed by companies that joined. Companies which will now have to find new plans.

Remember when we were told Obamacare would save money for middle class families?

Michele Hickford of Colonel Allen West’s blog reports the reality:

Healthcare premiums up $4865 since Obama promised to cut them $2500

For those of you mathematically challenged, the difference between going down $2,500 and going up is $4,865 is $7,365. Not what I’d call a “rounding error.”

However, you really have to give credit to the White House. They’ve discovered more ways to spin than carnival ride designers. After this fact was revealed, (according to the annual Kaiser Family Foundation report), the White House said it was actually great news because it meant premium costs were rising more slowly than before.

Ohhhh, riiiight.

Now to be fair (and balanced), at least that part is true. Investors Business Daily says “since 2006, the average annual increase for family plans at work has been 4.9%, down from around 10% a year from 1999-2005.”

But President Obama did NOT say, hey guys this is a great plan because your premiums will go up not quite as fast. That’s not a particularly compelling promise.

Do you recall when we were told that everyone would be covered? Well, guess what…

From FiveThrityEight:

33 Million Americans Still Don’t Have Health Insurance

Nearly 9 million people gained insurance last year, a win for “Obamacare” as the president’s signature health care law expanded Medicaid and opened health insurance exchanges. And yet, 33 million Americans, 10.4 percent of the U.S. population, still went without health insurance for the entirety of 2014.

Millions more were uninsured for at least part of the year.1 New data released this month shows they were disproportionately poor, black and Hispanic; 4.5 million of them were children.

Keep all of this in mind the next time a Democrat or one of their media allies says the Affordable Care Act is working. If this is success, I’d hate to see what failure looks like.

Featured image via YouTube.

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