So ultimately all consumers will pay for the co-op implosion as their IOUs are passed to commercial insurers. Guaranty associations typically are financed ex post facto, depending on how much is required, so no one can know how bad the arrears will be. But they will not be negligible, and not all the runoffs will be orderly.

Some co-ops were hapless amateurs—Maryland’s Evergreen Health signed up all of 450 members in the first enrollment period—but others became major ObamaCare players. Health Cooperative (now defunct) in Kentucky snapped up three of four consumers on the KYnect exchange. Health Republic Insurance (defunct) was New York’s second-largest individual carrier with 19% of the market and Utah’s Arches Health Plan (defunct) took 25%. One of five beneficiaries joined a co-op in year one and enrollment surged 150% for 2015.

Most co-ops that grew the fastest are now ruined—namely, six of the eight that exceeded the enrollment projections in their loan applications. The reason is that they bought customers with discounted premiums below the cost of medical claims.

The Government Accountability Office reports that average co-op rates were lower than commercial health plans in 54% to 63% of the regions where they competed, depending on the coverage. You don’t have to be a bankruptcy specialist on par with Donald Trump to understand that loading up on clients who are consuming health care but aren’t paying close to full freight is unsustainable.