All the political (and I mean purely political) blaming the failure of a significant percentage of health insurance cooperatives on the Obama administration (or the new regulatory environment or even the failure for reinsurance/risk adjustment/risk corridor to prop them up enough) is very ridiculous. But before I go there, let me start with some background.
To promote new competition in the states, Congress authorized the CO-OP (Consumer-Operated and Oriented Plans) program to help establish member-owned and governed nonprofits as new players in local health insurance markets. Formed in the same way that many health care, telephone and electric power cooperatives were begun in the 1930s, the program had been strongly pushed by numerous groups who wanted more options for buyers purchasing health insurance on the individual and group markets.
