Richard Pollock explains for Daily Caller readers why it’s difficult to follow the investigation of a failed Obamacare co-op.
New York regulators refuse to publicly release key documents that explain the failure of the nation’s largest Obamacare health insurance co-op.
New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) reportedly launched an official investigation in September 2015 of Health Republic of New York for “substantial under-reporting” of its finances. Health Republic is one of 13 Obamacare non-profit health insurance co-ops that have failed since the $2.5 billion program’s 2012 launch to compete with commercial for-profit insurance companies.
D. Monica Marsh, DFS’s principal attorney, told The Daily Caller News Foundation that Health Republic’s financial records aren’t being made public because doing so would have a “chilling effect” on the state’s official investigation. …
… Obamacare officials gave Health Republic $355 million in 2012. It was also one of three Obamacare co-ops founded by Sara Horowitz, a well-connected New York liberal activist who once worked on the same liberal think tank board with then-State Senator Barack Obama. Her Oregon co-op has also failed, but the third one, in New Jersey, continues to operate.
Health Republic’s collapse last fall forced 210,000 low-income customers to scramble for new health insurance coverage during the Thanksgiving holiday season.