Posted on 10/19/2015 8:50:36 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I wish this headline was more surprising but these days it’s probably just another brick in a very large wall. The Daily Caller has been peeking under the covers of the Obamacare system of co-ops across the country in the wake of several of them going under recently, including outfits in Tennessee and Nevada. It turns out that, unbeknownst to both the public and Congress, nearly a dozen other co-ops have been placed on a special watch list because their future is highly uncertain and they may be at risk of folding as well. So how did nobody know about this? (Daily Caller)
Federal officials have a secret list of 11 Obamacare health insurance co-ops they fear are on the verge of failure, but they refuse to disclose them to the public or to Congress, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has learned…
The 11 unidentified co-ops appear to be still operating but are now on “enhanced oversight” by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which manages the Obamacare program. The 11 received letters from CMS demanding that they take urgent actions to avoid closing.
Aaron Albright, chief CMS spokesman, said 11 co-ops “are either on a corrective action plan or enhanced oversight. We have not released the letters or names.” He gave no grounds for withholding the information from either the public or Congress.
So the bottom line is that there were two dozen of these co-ops set up originally as Obamacare became the law of the land and began casting its net across the country. In the past year, nine of them already announced that they were closing, located in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada, Tennessee, Vermont and West Virginia. In a worst case scenario, if all eleven of the co-ops on this secret list go under… well, I’m no math major but that sounds like a pretty high percentage of 24 to me.
The real world effects of this go far beyond the political optics of a failed policy. Uncle Sam has issued a mandate that everyone must have a policy and millions of Americans signed up through these co-ops. When the original eleven finish folding all of their customers will have to go somewhere or face the wrath of the government. (If you like your doctor you might be able to keep your doctor, but he’s still going to want to know who your insurance is through.) So all of these newly uninsured clients will be signing on to one of the other programs, many of which are already struggling to keep their heads above water because – surprise – many of the newly insured were sicker than expected and suddenly started using their benefits. Who could have possibly seen that coming?
Perhaps even more to the point is the fact that the names of these eleven co-ops are being kept secret. A lack of transparency is bad enough in and of itself, but don’t the people signing up for policies through them deserve to know that they might not be around next year? Allowing people to begin paying into those systems only to potentially have the rug pulled out from under them next spring seems like a rather shoddy trick.
All this says nothing of the massive amount of taxpayer money which was flushed into the co-ops to begin with. Guess what happens to that?
All 24 received 15-year loans in varying amounts to offer health insurance to poor and low income customers and provide publicly funded competition to private, for-profit insurers…
Nearly half a million failing co-op customers will have to find new coverage in 2016. More than $900 million of the original $2 billion in loans has been lost.
A billion here… a billion there. Pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
The dominoes are already tumbling towards single payer.
At one time I would have agreed with you.
Then Trump entered the race.
Thank God America is awakening.
NY’s states “coop” is closing Jan. 1
200,000 people will again have to find a new insurer for the second time in 2 years.
This coop rec’d about $170 million in Federal Obamacare grants to establish themselves in the “high risk corridor” before they even sold a single policy
They then lost $70 million in 2014, and lost another $55 million in the first six months of 2015.
The goal seems to get everyone used to corrupt, fascist system - and then prepare for total nationalization.
Oh, no! Tell us it ain’t so!
This was supposed to be SO GOOD, that it was the answer for all time.
Somebody was severely lacking in critical thinking.
Do not start vast projects with half-vast ideas.
I am starting to hear more about this from other insurance companies. As the exchanges go under we can be reminded that Obama lied to us about keeping our own doctors, the cost, and everything else about it. He lied to us like a used car salesman. Then paid someone tied to his wife to build the website that didn’t work. He’s the anti-Midas King. Can’t wait til he’s out of office one way or another.
Why are they bothering to hide it? It's not a bug, it's a design feature.
Pull the plug on Obamacare, Congress...save the nation billions of $$$$$.
This guy is a heatseaking guided missile fired by the Saudis to destroy American Airlines Flight 1776.
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Pure BS. They won't fold. The corrupt and spineless Republican congress will rescue them all with additional funding.
Last time I checked Trump favored single payer.
And frankly the train wreck is becoming so complete, that may become our only option.
No, no, no! Odumbo promised you can keep your health plan if you like it. If the provider fails, its members should not be forced to leave it and should not be subject to IRS fines and penalties since they were deserted by the government. How do they (the government) justify penalizing citizens who followed their orders?
I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
The check is in the mail.
I promise not to...
If you like your current health insurance, you can keep it.
This coop rec’d about $170 million in Federal Obamacare grants
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I’m so sick of hearing the words “grants”. It just a fancy word for uncontrolled government largesse.
It seems that grants always go to liberal programs. You never hear of a single grant going to support a conservative project of any kind. Ever.
ping
The “transformation” of America promised by traitor Clown Prince nobama is proceeding well. All is intentional. Many of our “leaders” are complicit criminals. May Justice soon find them all.
And he keeps calling US the bad guys. Does he think people are really THAT stupid? Well yeah I guess so or almost half of them (so they say; which I think is ANOTHER lie)
Deliberately built-in "adverse selection".
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