Lawmakers want to know why O'care startups are failing

By Robert King, Robert King

Published December 20, 2015

!--StartFragment-->

Two Republican Senate leaders are demanding answers from the Obama administration as to why nearly half of the 23 taxpayer-funded Obamacare insurance startups are shutting down.

Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee wrote to the administration Monday on the consumer-operated and oriented plans created by Obamacare. The senators asked what the administration has done to get back the $1 billion in loans from the 11 co-ops that will shut down by the end of the year.

"The co-ops are not living up to their expectations," the senators said in a letter to Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the co-ops.