Yep, this whole shutting down government because of socialist Obamacare thing
sure makes sense.
States with new member-owned CO-OP health plans as part of Obamacare have premiums that are more than 8 percent lower than states that don’t, a new study shows.
The Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans, with startup money loaned by the health care law, have zero or very few customers yet, given all the problems with the sign-up system. But they are going toe-to-toe with traditional insurers on the exchanges in 22 states, introducing new competition to insurance markets. And there’s some early evidence that they may be helping to lower costs.
An analysis commissioned by the National Alliance of State Health CO-Ops found that the average premium for the benchmark plan on which the Department of Health and Human Services bases subsidies is $318 in CO-OP states and $347 in the others, a difference of 8.4 percent.
The health insurance cooperatives, originally included in the Affordable Care Act as a watered-down public option, would be operative in more states, but funds for the program were originally cut from $6 billion to $3.4 in Congress's austerity frenzy. Then it was slashed again in the fiscal cliff deal, allowing for little more than the already contracted $2 billion that was loaned to programs in the 22 participating states.
The co-ops hope to provide coverage to the kinds of people insurance companies previously rejected: the chronically ill and too-expensive to cover. Operating as non-profits, co-op officials say, gives them an advantage in securing good relationships with hospitals and negotiating for lower prices for hospital services. Because they don't have a profit margin to worry about, the co-ops can come into the exchanges—where they're competing with traditional private insurers—with lower premiums, forcing private insurers to reduce premium costs. So far, that's working.