Colorado's new health co-op is claiming an early success on the road to its long-term enrollment goals and is the first exchange plan to report membership data.
So far, Colorado HealthOP has garnered a 10 percent market share in the state's health insurance exchange, Connect for Health Colorado, with more than 7,000 of the 67,000 new health plan enrollees.
One of 10 health plans available on the exchange across the state, the co-op is getting a lot of interest in certain markets, with a nearly 12 percent market share in Denver County, the state's most populous, 21 percent in Park County, 22 percent in Summit and 27 percent in Boulder, the sixth most-populous county.
Colorado HealthOP also said its attracting a sizable number of young Colorado consumers, with enrollees so far being on average two years younger than the average enrollee across the marketplace (although there is still two months to go before the end of open enrollment).
"We are very encouraged by our enrollment numbers," said Colorado HealthOP CEO Julia Hutchins in a media release. "They really affirm that our member-driven, cooperative business model is not only attractive but necessary to Colorado consumers."
Hutchins, a former business development director at two other nonprofit health plans, Alameda Alliance, in Oakland, Calif., and Colorado Access, said the co-op's current enrollment -- about 7,500 individual and small group members through late January -- puts it on track to meet first year sustainability goals.
The only exchange health plan to release enrollment data so far, Colorado HealthOP has tried to position itself to go toe-to-toe with established health plans by participating in both traditional and new marketing channels. Its plans are available for sale in the exchange and through independent brokers, as part of a deal inked last May with the broker network Warner Pacific.
The other health plans vying for individual and small group business in the Colorado exchange are Access Health Colorado, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Cigna, Colorado Choice Health Plans, Denver Health Medical Plan (operated by the Denver Health and Hospital Authority), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Rocky Mountain Health Plans and UnitedHealthcare.