Nonprofit health insurer won't be coming back to New Jersey

Health Republic of New Jersey, the start-up insurer created by the Affordable Care Act, won't be doing business again in New Jersey. The state Insurance Commissioner wants to liquidate it, after taking control of the company when it became insolvent last year.

Its demise means that only five of the original 23 Consumer-Oriented and Operated Plans (CO-OPs) established across the country in 2013 remain. Health Republic had hoped to attract private investment and eventually reopen, but negotiations with potential investors failed.

The shutdown of so many of the CO-OPs illustrates both the difficulty for new insurers entering the market, and a problem with the health care law. Newer, smaller companies were hit hard by a provision, called risk adjustment, that required them to pay into a fund that helped other insurers whose enrollees were sicker than theirs. The payments forced the New Jersey CO-OP plan and some others into insolvency.

Changes in that part of the law are to take effect this year and next, but will come too late to help the New Jersey plan. With Republicans in Congress moving to repeal the Affordable Care Act as soon as President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, it is unclear if those changes would even survive.

Read more: http://www.northjersey.com/story/news/health/2017/01/06/nonprofit-health-insurer-wont-coming-back-nj/96243482/