They have rented offices and zero customers. All their capital is borrowed. They're trying to sign the kind of expensive, chronically ill individuals that insurers have avoided for decades. In three weeks they face mighty competitors with a hundred times the resources. But the 24 insurance-company startups created by the Affordable Care Act say they're ready to battle the establishment, stay in business and change health care. "What we're doing is a big part of the ACA story," said John Morrison, president of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs. "We bring a completely different paradigm to health care finance. We're not interested in making as much money as we can. What we are interested in is making consumer patients healthy and saving money."
