Utah Insurer Joins The Quickly Growing List Of Collapsing Health Co-Ops
As Utah’s Arches Health Plan announces plans to close, it becomes the tenth of 23 nonprofit insurance cooperatives created under the 2010 health law to shut down. Marketplace reports on how the remaining "financially fragile" co-ops might survive.
The Associated Press:
Struggling Nonprofit Insurer To Close Over Lack Of US Money
A nonprofit Utah health insurer created by the federal health care law will shut its doors after learning it would receive only a fraction of the U.S. money it was counting on, state insurance regulators said. Arches Mutual Insurance Co. will keep paying claims for its customers this year but will halt operations in 2016 because it doesn't have enough money to meet its obligations, Utah's Insurance Department said Tuesday. (Price, 10/29)
The Fiscal Times:
Nearly Half Of Obamacare Co-Ops Are Closing
Nearly half of the 23 non-profit insurance plans created under Obamacare in 2011 at a cost of $2.4 billion have announced they will close by the end of the year. Utah’s Arches Health Plan on Tuesday became the 10th health insurance co-op to announce that it was closing its doors. The move comes soon after the Obama administration’s decision on Oct. 1 to provide just 12.6 percent of the $2.87 billion that insurers were seeking to offset losses caused by unexpectedly high coverage costs. (Pianin, 10/28)
Marketplace:
Inside The Plan By Health Co-Ops To Survive
The health insurance co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act are have seen better days — much better days, in fact, as nine have either closed or plan to by the end of this calendar year. Co-ops are nonprofit insurers owned by their policyholders, who are generally individuals and small employer groups. (Gorenstein, 10/28)