In a letter to the White House, Sens. Orrin Hatch and Lamar Alexander demand answers as to why nearly half of the 23 taxpayer-funded Obamacare insurance startups are shutting down.
Reports the Washington Examiner:
Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee wrote to the administration Monday on the consumer-operated and oriented plans created by Obamacare.
The senators asked what the administration has done to get back the $1 billion in loans from the 11 co-ops that will shut down by the end of the year.
“The co-ops are not living up to their expectations,” the senators said in a letter to Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the co-ops.
The Affordable Care Act created the co-ops as a way to spur more competition on the Obamacare insurance exchanges.
However, 11 have said they will shut down due to a series of financial problems, saying they won’t offer plans in 2016. A chief reason is a lack of federal funding from a program intended to help insurers mitigate substantial losses.
“There are indications additional co-ops will close before the end of the year, bringing even greater uncertainty to the nearly 870,000 individuals enrolled in co-ops nationwide,” the letter said.
