U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) sought answers on Friday about how InHealth Mutual’s announced closure would impact 22,000 Ohioans who purchased health insurance through it.
InHealth Mutual was operated under the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Consumer Operated and Oriented Plans (CO-OP) program.
Portman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led a report in March that identified shortcomings within the ACA’s CO-OP program, and raised questions about the impact of InHealth Mutual’s closure on policyholders on Friday.
“A majority of Obamacare CO-OPs have now gone bankrupt, costing taxpayers up to $1.2 billion and causing more than 700,000 Americans to lose their chosen health insurance,” Portman said. “These families — including 22,000 Ohioans enrolled in InHealth — were encouraged by the administration to enroll in the Obamacare marketplace in the first place. Now they have to find new insurance or risk paying a penalty to the IRS.”
Even worse, Portman said, many have already paid high deductibles for CO-OP coverage and could lose credit for those payments while incurring higher out-of-pocket costs with a new insurance provider.
“That’s just not fair, and the administration owes these Ohio families a solution to a problem it created,” Portman said.
Portman raised questions about the closure’s impact on the 22,000 Ohioans in a letter sent to acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andy Slavitt on Friday.
Portman questioned what the administration would do to help those impacted by InHealth’s closure, whether the scale of out-of-pocket costs has been evaluated and whether Ohioans enrolled through InHealth would be subjected to the individual mandate penalty.