Risky Business: Only Three of the ACA’s 23 co-ops Remain

One lesson learned from the ACA is that the risk of failure for the law’s health insurance co-operatives was quite high. All but three of the ACA’s 23 co-op insurers have failed since 2015, one year after the ACA exchanges were launched.

The three survivors are Maine’s Community Health Options (CHO), Mountain Health CO-OP in Montana (which also offers coverage in Idaho and Wyoming) and Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative (CGHC) in Wisconsin. Called the “little miracles” for their ability to survive despite the risks and increased competition, each reported a profit in 2018 and 2019 after suffering big losses in their...