House lawmakers are angry that one of the last taxpayer-funded Obamacare plans wants to move to for-profit status, saying that the millions of dollars provided in startup loans were meant to go to nonprofits.
Republican leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee wrote to the Obama administration and the Maryland consumer-oriented and operated plan Evergreen Health, which wants to become a for-profit health insurer. The lawmakers want the plan to repay the money it was given by the administration if it no longer meets the terms of its loan requirements with the federal government.
Evergreen is one of 23 co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act to provide more competition on the law’s exchanges. However, only six remain as most failed because of financial losses and not enough federal funding.
“Taxpayers have already wasted billions of dollars on these failing organizations, which have forced hundreds of thousands of Americans off of their insurance, and those federal funds were never intended to be used to subsidize for-profit conversions of co-ops,” the lawmakers said.
The insurer announced this month that it will be acquired by some private investors and intends to convert to become a for-profit insurer.
The lawmakers contend that Evergreen must meet specific requirements in exchange for getting the taxpayer dollars, including operating as a nonprofit. Evergreen received $65 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The lawmakers are seeking documents from CMS and Evergreen about the insurer’s loan agreements with the federal government and its compliance requirements for taking the money.
The letters say that if the insurer doesn’t meet the loan requirements, it must repay 110 percent of the loan plus interest.
Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, wrote the letters.
Evergreen is one of several insurers that are suing the Obama administration to get full payments under a federal program intended to mitigate any losses from the marketplace.
