In the heat of Congressional negotiations prior to the final passage of Obamacare, leading Democrats pushed for a new government-run health insurance program to compete against private health plans offered on the exchanges. It was an attempt to move the needle closer to a single-payer system, and it was a way to test whether this “public option” offered better quality products over private carriers.

It’s clear that the public option didn’t make its way into the health care law. As a final compromise, federal grant money was instead set aside for states willing to set up non-profit, member-led health plans, or co-ops. But since Obamacare’s passage, a string of events have dealt financial blows to these start-ups, which explains why 11 of the 23 are now defunct.

What are these co-ops, and why are they falling by the wayside? Check out my latest Health Care Update here.