Full Measure: Obamacare co-ops shutting down across America
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) — The Obamacare co-ops are non-profit insurers that were intended to help providecompetition, and they received $2.5 billion in low-interest loans at taxpayer expense. But they're falling like dominoes.
Twenty-three co-ops were created by the Affordable Care Act, known to most as Obamacare.
This week, with the addition of Utah, there are ten co-ops that will shut down by the end of the year. That number is expected to grow.
"So here we are two years into Obamacare and they're dropping like flies and no one is surprised. The fed is going to spend over 2 billion on this idea and it's a really stupid idea that turns out, never worked. It was awfully naïve to think that you could put people in business in the most problematic part of the market and they were going to take on the insurance giants and show them how it was done. I mean, this is just a government fiasco," said Robert Laszewski, a healthcare analyst.
The government is now closely monitoring the remaining co-ops, even putting them on informal watch lists and warning them to take corrective action.
Eighteen of the 23 co-ops paid their top executives prodigious salaries ranging from $263,000 to $587,000, according to 2013 IRS tax filings.
"Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson" airs on Sinclair Broadcast Group stations on Sunday mornings. Click here for specific air times in your region. Follow "Full Measure" on Twitter (@FullMeasureNews).
