State-backed Evergreen Health has been barred by the Maryland Insurance Administration from selling health insurance for individuals pending federal approval of its proposal to convert from a cooperative to a for-profit insurer.
Evergreen is one of a handful of surviving health insurance co-ops that were set up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). There were originally 23, but dismal market conditions have whittled that number down to just a handful.
The Baltimore Sun reports that Evergreen has been struggling to keep afloat in the face of financial pressures that have forced it to consider the offer of an anonymous group of investors and convert to a for-profit insurer. Now it waits on approval from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages the co-ops and fielded a $65 million start-up loan to Evergreen.
Evergreen’s future is even more unclear with President-elect Donald J. Trump saying on several occasions that he had plans to axe the ACA.
“If you look at the Affordable Care Act and why they created co-ops to begin with — a focus on medical outcomes, disease management — Evergreen is the poster child of what Congress tried to accomplish,” said Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer Jr in the
Baltimore Sun report.
Evergreen’s privatization is expected to affect some 9,000 policyholders both on and off the insurance marketplaces created by the ACA.
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