Friday Night Lights-Out: Oregon’s Health CO-OP Shuts its Doors As Taxpayer Losses Surpass $1.5B

Jul 11, 2016 

Press Release  The Energy and Commerce Comittee

Upton: “We are talking about a mess that’s essentially three Solyndras.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services announced Friday evening that Oregon’s Health CO-OP would shutter, forcing its approximately 40,000 participants to find new coverage. This is the second CO-OP in Oregon to fail as Health Republic Insurance of Oregon closed last year. The announcement means that 15 out of the original 23 Obamacare CO-OPs have closed their doors at a total cost to taxpayers of over $1.5 billion. The closures have come at an increasingly rapid rate – 12 of the CO-OPs have collapsed since last September, with Connecticut closing last week.

“With two more closures last week, the administration has now hemorrhaged over $1.5 billion. We are talking about a mess that’s essentially three Solyndras,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). “The CO-OPs are going down faster than the Titanic, yet there is not enough urgency coming out of the Obama administration to protect taxpayer dollars. With eight barely hanging on, what can the administration do to prevent further losses?”

  

CO-OPs that have failed and taxpayer dollars received (in order by closing announcement):

CoOportunity Health - Iowa and Nebraska
Cost: $145,312,100

Louisiana Health Cooperative, Inc.
Cost: $65,790,660

Nevada Health Cooperative 
Cost: $65,925,396

Health Republic Insurance of New York
Cost: $265,133,000

Kentucky Health Care Cooperative - Kentucky and West Virginia
Cost: $146,494,772

Community Health Alliance Mutual Insurance Company - Tennessee
Cost: $73,306,700

Colorado HealthOp
Cost: $72,335,129

Health Republic Insurance of Oregon
Cost: $60,648,505

Consumers' Choice Health Insurance Company - South Carolina
Cost: $87,578,208

Arches Mutual Insurance Company – Utah
Cost: $89,650,303

Meritus Health Partners – Arizona
Cost: $93,313,233

Consumers Mutual Insurance – Michigan
Cost: $71,534,300

InHealth Mutual – Ohio
Cost: $129,225,604

HealthyCT – Connecticut
Cost: $127,980,768

Oregon Health’s CO-OP – Oregon
Cost: $56,656,900

TOTAL TAXPAYER DOLLARS: $1,550,885,578

Note: This total does not include Vermont’s CO-OP, which was denied an insurance license by the state, and was dissolved before enrolling a single person.