Dive Brief:
- Oregon health insurance co-op Health Republic Insurance announced Friday it will not offer coverage beyond 2015.
- Also on Friday, the Colorado Division of Insurance announced plans to decertify Colorado HealthOP, so it will also be unable to offer coverage in 2016, although the co-op says it plans to fight the decision.
- Both shutdown announcements come on the heels of the announcement that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will only reimburse a fraction of what insurers were promised under the “risk corridors” program, which was supposed to cushion the risk for insurers taking on new high-risk enrollees under the ACA.
Dive Insight:
At this point, more than a third of the 23 co-ops organized under the ACA have failed, calling the concept and future of the remaining co-ops into question. Last week's announcements closely followed those from Tennessee, Kentucky and New York.
The insurers are not holding back in calling out the federal government for its failure to follow through with the intended risk corridors payments. The decision cost Oregon's co-op more than $20 million and Colorado's co-op $10 million, the organizations say.
"Colorado HealthOP's closure is the latest in a series of CO-OP shut downs across the country, spurred by the federal government's failure to pay billions of dollars in promised funding," Colorado HealthOP announced in a press statement, noting they had nearly 40% of enrollees who purchased plans through the state's marketplace for 2015. The organization argues that even without the federal funds, it was projected to be profitable in 2016, and says it will pursue "all remedies" to serve Colorado.