FierceHealthPayer explained the program concisely: “The program collects funds from insurers that are more successful on the exchanges and distributes those payments to less successful insurers to lessen the financial risk associated with operating on the exchanges. It has in the past been criticized as a bailout to insurers.
“While health insurers are owed $2.87 billion through the program for 2014, the government will only be able to pay them about 12.6 percent of what they’re owed, CMS says. That’s because ‘issuers,’ or more successful insurers, will pay only $362 million into the program,” the news service reported.
