The Affordable Care Act CO-OP Program: Facing Both Barriers and Opportunities for More Competitive Health Insurance Markets

The failure of the health insurance cooperative operating in Iowa and Nebraska, together with the significant financial losses experienced by most others, have raised questions about the viability of the Affordable Care Act’s Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) program. The program, which offers low-interest loans to co-ops, was designed to inject competition into highly concentrated markets and provide more affordable, consumer-focused alternatives to traditional insurance companies. This new blog post explains what’s behind the CO-OP program’s mixed performance so far and also points to reasons why success is still within reach.