Sen. Conrad's Health Insurance Co-Ops Won't Provide Affordable Care and Could be Used by the Insurance Industry Against Americans, Says Consume...(rs.(4) A 2002 report by the Commonwealt...),Health

• The Florida Community Health Purchasing Alliances enrolled 92,000 people when enrollment peaked in 1998, had increasing difficulty attracting any but the smallest employers and gradually found themselves losing health insurers. As a consequence, enrollment also fell, and the purchasing alliance ceased operations in 2000.
• The Texas Insurance Purchasing Alliance, begun in 1994, never reached the enrollment levels of the Florida effort, covering only about 1,000 firms and 13,000 people at its height. Difficulty in attracting employers led to the withdrawal of insurers, and the Alliance governing board ultimately decided that the operation was not viable and closed it down.
• The Alliance in Colorado was the most recent failure. Established in 1995, the Alliance closed in the summer of 2002 after one of its three health plans withdrew from the state small-group market, a second capped enrollment, and the last decided to stop participating.
  

A Government Accountability Office report in 2000 came to similar conclusions.(6)

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Eliminating State Insurance Regulation

Some lawmakers, led by Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), see co-ops as not just a weak pseudo-reform but as the insurance companies' top prize: a vehicle to avoid state insurance regulation.

Under a similar plan authored by Enzi in 2006, state co-ops would have been exempted from state consumer protection laws. As a result, consumers would lose benefits such as a woman's right to visit an OB/GYN, screenings for cervical and prostate cancers, newborn care, bans on "drive thru" deliveries, and guarantees of independent medical review if an insurer denies coverage for a medically necessary treatment. The plan
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