The first Obamacare-created insurer to go under could cost federal taxpayers up to $140 million, according to a new court filing, reports The Daily Caller.
CoOportunity Health, a nonprofit insurer created with $147 million in federal taxpayer loans as a result of the Affordable Care Act, was taken over by the state of Iowa in 2014 and declared insolvent in March of this year.
Daniel Watkins, a lawyer designated as the special deputy liquidator charged with helping dissolve CoOportunity Health, which formerly served Iowa’s and Nebraska’s Obamacare exchanges, filed a status report Friday in Iowa’s Polk County District Court, raising more questions about CoOportunity’s financial status.
After coming up with a $163 million operating loss during its first year as an nonprofit insurer, CoOportunity still owes federal taxpayers $147 million in start-up loans originally doled out by the Obama administration as part of the health-care law.
Watkins believes CoOportunity will bring in another $97 million for its services this year — but most of that will be owed to guaranty associations who have been covering medical bills for the company’s customers. Watkins doesn’t believe the new income will even begin to cover federal taxpayer loans.
CoOportunity is the first Obamacare co-op to go under, but a second appears to be coming later this year. Louisiana Health Co-operative will shut down Dec. 31, 2015, according to Modern Healthcare. In all, at 19 of 23 nonprofits created by the law, losses exceeded the companies’ own projections for the first year of Obamacare’s operation.
-RW
If only someone could have predicted this. No one saw this coming. Not. One. Single. Person.
ReplyDeleteI am every bit as shocked as you are.
Delete