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Omaha Steve

(99,700 posts)
Thu May 7, 2015, 11:17 AM May 2015

Sen. Ben Sasse (R) presses feds on reasons behind collapse of Iowa-based health insurer CoOportunity

Source: Omaha World Herald

By Joseph Morton

WASHINGTON — The failure of Iowa-based health insurer CoOportunity continues to captivate Capitol Hill, with lawmakers digging for answers into the remarkable meltdown.

“CoOportunity was the second largest co-op in the country, and their collapse has caused lots of havoc,” Sen. Ben Sasse told The World-Herald. “Fundamentally, this is about people’s lives.”

The Nebraska Republican, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, sent a six-page letter on Wednesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell.

He posed a long list of detailed questions about the department’s handling of CoOportunity, which served as many as 120,000 customers at its peak, two-thirds of them from Nebraska.

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://www.livewellnebraska.com/consumer/sen-ben-sasse-presses-feds-on-reasons-behind-collapse-of/article_5cea205a-38d6-5f5b-a666-f2f9b32ea9d3.html

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Sen. Ben Sasse (R) presses feds on reasons behind collapse of Iowa-based health insurer CoOportunity (Original Post) Omaha Steve May 2015 OP
I sure do hope they investigate asiliveandbreathe May 2015 #1
According to the article they priced themselves too low and got too many customers to be able to jwirr May 2015 #5
My first question would be: is this coop one of the insurance companies that was not accepted jwirr May 2015 #2
What Is The State/Federal Relationship On Insurance Matters DallasNE May 2015 #3
Another good question. And yes single payer would be much easier to administer. jwirr May 2015 #4

asiliveandbreathe

(8,203 posts)
1. I sure do hope they investigate
Thu May 7, 2015, 11:33 AM
May 2015

but I believe they might not like what they hear - as too why the got choked off due to congressional cuts....

From Dec 2014-

http://www.omaha.com/money/troubled-iowa-insurer-cooportunity-health-may-be-liquidated/article_825f0962-8b7d-11e4-b6d3-ef7555754633.html

Thanks OS - you always make me dig deeper into the subject matter...

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
5. According to the article they priced themselves too low and got too many customers to be able to
Thu May 7, 2015, 12:39 PM
May 2015

pay the bills. They were new and had no idea how to run an insurance company. Also Congress cut a spending bill. Rs?

jwirr

(39,215 posts)
2. My first question would be: is this coop one of the insurance companies that was not accepted
Thu May 7, 2015, 11:40 AM
May 2015

Last edited Thu May 7, 2015, 12:41 PM - Edit history (1)

into the ACA because it did not fit the requirements? Then when their clients were screaming that the Obama administration was taking their insurance away the ACA reversed their policy and agreed to continue coverage. Some research says that was not the problem.

Second: Is this just another R attack against ACA?

Third: Did this organization go belly up because they did not like the law that required them to use 85% of their federal money for services to clients? That would have cut into their profits. This is also not what happened.

Depending on the answers to these questions - I would also like to know what happened because I think coops are usually a good thing.

DallasNE

(7,403 posts)
3. What Is The State/Federal Relationship On Insurance Matters
Thu May 7, 2015, 12:19 PM
May 2015

In other words, does the Iowa Insurance Commission have primary responsibility with the federal government only having oversight responsibility that the revenue sharing feature is being properly complied with. Plus, this is just another exhibit for why we need single payer.

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