CoOportunity Health in Iowa and Nebraska was the first federal health insurance co-op to collapse, but not the last.

Nebraska Congressman Adrian Smith sponsored a bill that would protect former clients of the co-ops from being fined by the federal government for not having health insurance. Those former clients would have a year to find alternative coverage.

Smith says the co-ops were created as a public option to traditional insurance, but were never held to the standards expected of private insurance companies. . .

The bill has passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee.