In New Mexico’s case, Hickey found that hospital groups had a motive to expand competition.
“We were able to sit down with large groups and say, ‘This market is consolidating, and the last thing you want is one or two major players, because they’ll hammer the hell out of you,'” he says. “I used to work at one. I know. ‘It’s in your interest to give us a good rate to give us a foothold in the market. We’re physician-oriented and physician-led. We get it.'”
The most thriving co-op is Maine Community Health, which has taken 80 percent of the new market from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (a WellPoint subsidiary) despite comparable prices. Co-ops in Nebraska and Iowa secured more than half the market, while Kentucky’s co-op grabbed 60 percent.
The latter proved a bitter irony for McConnell, who was instrumental in eliminating funding for 26 other states. Next year, the Kentucky co-op will expand into West Virginia, one of three moving into neighboring states.
“We don’t need to own the whole market,” says Julia Hutchins, CEO of Colorado Health Insurance Cooperative. “There’s an opportunity to push the entire industry in a direction more focused on consumers, and we can do that even with a very small market share.”