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Tuesday evening, Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass legislation providing relief to individuals that have lost coverage due to failed Obamacare Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OPs). The bill, H.R. 954, the CO-OP Consumer Protection Act, exempts consumers from having to pay a penalty if the co-op that they were enrolled in collapses. Under Obamacare, the penalty in 2016 for an individual not having insurance is $695 or 2.5% of adjusted gross income, whichever is greater.
 
“In yet another example of the failure of this law, 17 separate co-ops have collapsed since Obamacare was implemented,” said Latta. “In a faulty design that only government could dream up, individuals that lost their health care through a co-op failure are being punished twice — first by losing their coverage, and then by being forced to pay a penalty for not being enrolled in a plan. I voted to pass H.R. 954 to protect more than 22,000 Ohioans that were left without coverage after an Ohio co-op collapsed earlier this year from having to pay this penalty.”
 
In May, the Ohio Department of Insurance announced that InHealth Mutual, an Ohio co-op set up under Obamacare, would shut down due to significant financial losses. The co-op had net losses totaling $79 million in 2015 and suffered $29 million in losses in 2016 until it was finally shuttered. In total, only 6 of the original 23 co-ops set up under Obamacare are still operating.

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