Health Co-Ops Failing : Obama's Loan Fine Print?

This is interesting in that this article doesn't explain just why the COOPs are dying? But one thing that is mentioned here that makes me skeptical about the fate of these nonprofits is the Obama administration involvement.

It sure makes sense, in the light of what has transpired over the last 5 years on health care, the Obama administration would do what ever it takes to destroy any organization that would stand against it's march toward 'single payer' health care.

Health Co-Ops Never Had a Chance
Source: Jerry Markon, "Health Co-Ops, Created to Foster Competition and Lower Insurance Costs, Are In Danger," Washington Post, October 22, 2013.
November 8, 2013

When the new health care law was being cobbled together, Congress decided to establish a network of nonprofit insurance companies aimed at bringing competition to the marketplace, long dominated by major insurers. But these co-ops, started as a great hope for lowering insurance costs, are already in danger, says the Washington Post.

• Their failure would leave taxpayers potentially on the hook for nearly $1 billion in defaulted loans and rob the marketplace of the kind of competition they were supposed to create.
• And if they become insolvent, policyholders in at least half the states where the co-ops operate could be stuck with medical bills.
• The Obama administration has estimated that more than a third of the nearly $2 billion it has lent to co-ops will not be repaid.

Despite the obstacles, co-op leaders say that the federal loans will help them succeed and that it is imperative that they do.

But Karen Davis, a professor of health policy management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the co-ops were not designed with the support they need to thrive. "One provision after another got stuck in there to limit their probability of success," she says. "It's a little ironic to say you are for competition in the free market and then you don't make it easy for new entrants."