Liquidation Looms for Midwest Insurance Cooperative

An insurance cooperative created to provide health care in Iowa and Nebraska will be formally liquidated this weekend.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart said that a Polk County judge has agreed to approve the liquidation plan.

CoOportunity is a federally funded nonprofit established to provide health care in Iowa and Nebraska. Gerhart took the cooperative over after he determined the nonprofit’s claims would exceed its available cash.

About 24,000 people still have CoOportunity plans in Iowa and Nebraska, with about 5,500 who bought coverage on the insurance exchange created as part of the Affordable Care Act.

Gerhart said that people who received plans through the exchange must enroll in new coverage to maintain any federal tax subsidies.