Iowa and Nebraska's ACA-supported nonprofit, CoOportunity Health, has sold a lot more health plans in the two states than expected, through a mix of old and new strategies.
While CoOportunity Health leaders were expecting to garner about 12,000 new members by Jan. 1, they ended up with 35,000, more than half of the 52,000 projected for three years,
More than 23,000 consumers enrolled in Nebraska and about 12,000 in Iowa, most of them in individual policies, in addition to about 700 employer plans covering 12,600 people. About 8,100 Iowans have enrolled in individual CoOportunity Health's individual plans, including residents living along the poverty line now eligible for subsidies through the state's new private Medicaid alternative plan.
Across individual and group segments, the demographics of the initial membership are "split virtually identically" across the three age bands, with a healthy mix of young and old, the company said in media release.
The insurer's CEO, David Lyons, credited the higher-than-expected enrollment to the decision to sell plans on and off the Iowa and Nebraska insurance exchanges operated through Healthcare.gov, and through "some of the states' top brokers and agents."
"We believe our success confirms that Iowa and Nebraska individuals, families and businesses were ready for more health insurance choices in these markets," said Lyons, a lawyer who also founded the Iowa Institute, a business and government advisory, and served as a one-time Iowa insurance commissioner.
On the state exchange, CoOportunity Health is the only insurer selling statewide in both the individual and small group markets. Coventry is selling individual policies statewide, while the provider-owned insurers Avera Health Plans and Gundersen Health Plan are selling individual and small business plans in regional markets.
CoOportunity Health is unique among the co-ops in operating in two states. It was among the earliest of the 18 to get federal loans, in February 2012, with $14.6 million for startup costs and $98 million for solvency. Lyons started CoOportunity Health with CFO Stephen Ringlee,a private equity veteran, and COO Cliff Gold, a 30-year staffer and manager at Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Iowa and South Dakota.