NY loses O’Care insurer

DC inaction blamed

A major insurer run by New York state’s largest medical provider is pulling out of ObamaCare because of massive losses, the company announced Thursday.

Northwell Health, the former North Shore-Long Island Jewish hospital network, blamed a flawed provision in the Affordable Care Act — and the lack of action in Washington to fix it — for having to wind down its CareConnect insurance company.

CareConnect enrolled 14 percent of firms in New York’s small-group market and 8 percent of customers in the individual ObamaCare market — mostly on Long Island and in New York City.

In all, 118,086 customers be affected.

The firm said it had to pay $112 million last year into a riskinsurance pool created to prop up insurers that had a disproportionate number of high-risk or money-losing clients. It was facing another $100 million payment in 2018.

The pool was designed to prevent insurers from “cherry-picking” younger and healthier customers less expensive to cover.

But the high payments were will bankrupting CareConnect — formed in 2013 — and becoming a financial drain on Northwell.

The company is New York state’s largest health-care provider, with 22 hospitals and 550 outpatient facilities.

Regulatory filings show CareConnect lost $156.6 million in 2016, up from $31.8 million in 2015, according to Bloomberg.

“It has become increasingly clear that continuing the CareConnect health plan is financially unsustainable, given the failure of the federal government and Congress to correct regulatory flaws that have destabilized insurance markets and their refusal to honor promises of additional funding,” said Northwell CEO Michael Dowling.

Dowling, who was a top health adviser to former Gov. Mario Cuomo, the father of current Gov. Andrew Cuomo, thanked state officials for trying to reduce the impact of the losses over the past year as the insurer awaited a federal fix.

State Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo insisted that New York’s health insurance remains “robust” and New Yorkers still have choices for coverage.

The last ObamaCare insurer to go under in New York was Health Republic in 2015.