In an interview with National Journal, Sen. Orrin Hatch discusses his 2013 warning to the Obama administration about the impending collapse of the nonprofit insurance CO-OP program under Obamacare—a warning that liberals dismissed but has since been proven correct as 21 of the 23 insurers participating in the program have incurred net losses as of the end of last year.
Reports Caitlin Owens:
“Strongly worded letters” are written so frequently in Congress, and to so little effect, that the phrase has become a catchall term for futile action. So, when Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah penned one such letter in late 2013 warning of a co-op’s demise, it was understandable that it passed without much notice—dismissed as another ripple in the dueling rivers of partisan rhetoric about Obamacare.
Instead, Hatch’s letter proved prophetic.
“We made it pretty clear that they weren’t going to work, and they haven’t worked, nor did they really have much of a chance to work,” Hatch, currently chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview. Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma coauthored the letter with him, as well as Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana, who was then chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s oversight subcommittee.
After Hatch sent the letter to HHS, he said, “that was kind of the end of it, as far as the administration was concerned. They don’t think seem to be that interested in trying to restructure it or change it or get it to work.” But then he defaulted back to a broader critique of the health care law—an “abject failure,” he said—and Democrats’ perceived reluctance to admit its shortcomings. On co-ops specifically, while he and the other Republicans “raised the issue … it’s been impossible to really correct Obamacare because the Democrats treat it like a scripture,” he said.
