Co-Opportunity Health will no longer be offered to consumers in Nebraska and Iowa.
The Affordable Care Act established insurance co-ops to offer consumers more choices for health care coverage besides private health insurance companies.
Natalie Duy, Health Insurance Specialist at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Kansas City, says Co-Opportunity Health applied for a loan and received it to assist with their first year.
But they exceeded their enrollment expectations by almost 100,000 individuals. Duy says this meant the organization had to apply for a long term solvency loan in December.
The CMS did not approve their request. Duy says those who are currently enrolled in Co-Opportunity Health plans will be offered a special enrollment period after open enrollment ends February 15th.
"And the reason for this is after March 1st Co-Opportunity Health will no longer be a qualified health plan and what that means is that anybody enrolled in Co-Opportunity who is eligible for the advanced premium tax credit or cost sharing subsidies will no longer receive those assistance programs after March 1st.”
Duy says if individuals select their new plan by February 28th, their new coverage will go into effect March 1st. More information is available online at healthcare.gov or enrollnebraska.org.