One year ago Iowans and Nebraskans enrolled in the healthcare startup Co-Opportunity Health found out they were losing their healthcare coverage. There are 11 other of these so-called “co-ops” that were funded by the federal government that have failed.
The Affordable Care Act had set aside funding for these so-called health co-ops.
They enabled organizations to compete in places where there weren’t many insurers.
Most of the 120,000 members on Co-Opportunity Health were able to find new coverage in the first 90 days of its collapse, says Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart.
“At the time we had said we didn’t think we were going to be the only one," Gerhart says. "Now I didn’t think it’d be 12 but I’m not surprised there were more after Co-Opportunity.”
He says most individuals got insurance through Coventry on the ACA’s exchange.
Co-Opportunity Health collapsed because it wound up covering both a larger and sicker pool of Iowans and Nebraskans than they expected.
