Oregon insurance co-op Health Republic to close
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Health Republic Insurance, one of two nonprofit insurers created in Oregon under President Barack Obama's health care law, announced Friday that it is shutting down.
Health Republic will continue to pay claims through the rest of the year but won't sell policies for 2016, the company said. The 15,000 individuals and 800 small businesses that get insurance through Health Republic will have to turn to another insurer.
The company blamed a reduction in federal payments that are supposed to help insurers smooth out the risk of taking on newly insured patients under the Affordable Care Act. CEO Dawn Bonder said the company assumed it would get those payments when it set premiums, but due to a change made last year by Congress, insurers are receiving less than 13 percent of the money they'd expected.
For Health Republic, that represented a hit of $20 million for 2014 and 2015.
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