The health co-ops, set up as nonprofits with consumer-led boards to provide affordable insurance coverage to individuals and small businesses, are having heavy sledding.
The Times says that’s because “insurance marketplace is hostile to newcomers trying to break into an industry dominated by powerfully entrenched businesses.”
The Feds are promising to find ways of strengthening faltering co-ops but will that be enough?
The Times notes: “The co-ops’ problems are compounded by moves among the industry’s biggest companies, like Anthem and Aetna, which plan to buy their rivals to become even bigger. That raises the specter of even less competition in the marketplace and less room for smaller players to make a dent. Congress is holding hearings on the proposed mergers’ potential for raising insurance costs, and regulators are expected to scrutinize the deals closely.”
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