Maryland’s nonprofit health cooperative created under Obamacare is remaking itself as a for-profit company in an effort to survive.
Evergreen Health, one of the consumer operated and oriented plans set up via the healthcare law, announced Monday that it is being turned over to private equity investors after a year of working with federal regulators to try to stabilize its finances.
The insurer covers nearly 38,000 Maryland residents, including 8,000 who bought their plans through Maryland’s Obamacare exchange.
If federal and state officials approve the transition, just five of 23 original co-ops will remain. Seventeen of the co-ops have shuttered because of major losses, forcing their customers to buy new plans. The broad failure of the co-ops has been a key GOP criticism over the last year about the Affordable Care Act.
Chief Executive Peter Beilenson said the insurer “had to look at a way to survive. This has been a long run,” he said.
