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Moda Health, sponsor of the Blazers' arena, scored a major victory at the U.S. Court of Claims on Thursday. Photo courtesy of the Moda Center

(Courtesy of Moda Center)

Moda Health, the Oregon health insurer that has struggled in the era of the Affordable Care Act, finally got some good news Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Claims issued a strongly worded opinion that the federal government must pay Moda $214 million it had earlier reneged on. "The Court finds that the Government made a promise in the risk corridors program that it has yet to fulfill," wrote Judge Thomas Wheeler . "Today, the Court directs the Government to fulfill that promise. After all, to say to [Moda], 'The joke is on you. You shouldn't have trusted us,' is hardly worthy of our great government."

The government's risk corridor program promised significant financial assistance to companies if they agreed to participate in the insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act and then lost money. Moda enthusiastically jumped into the program and proceeded to hemorrhage red ink for three consecutive years.

Moda sought hundreds of millions of dollars. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid paid out just over $11 million to Moda in 2014 and nothing in 2015 or 2016.

Robert Gootee, Moda's chief executive, has said his company never would have jumped so aggressively into the new markets created by the Affordable Care Act if it knew the federal government was going to renege on its obligations.

Moda's parent company was forced this spring to sell off assets and borrow additional funds in order to replenish its depleted capital reserves. Oregon's Department of Consumer and Business Services took Moda into supervision last January.

Moda staved off being put into receivership only after raising more than $100 million in fresh capital.

Other insurance companies have filed similar claims seeking billions of dollars. Here in Oregon, Health Republic and Oregon's Health Co-op, two of the new health insurance co-ops created by the Affordable Care Act, closed their doors in part because their risk corridor money never materialized.

Health Republic is the lead plaintiff in a class-action suit of insurers. Dawn Bonder, founder and former chief executive of Health Republic, said the Moda ruling is welcome news for her litigation. But she fears the Trump administration and Republican Congress will appeal the ruling in order to avoid what Republicans have called an "insurance-industry bailout."

"It's great news, I'm very happy," Bonder said. "But it's not over."

The Affordable Care Act set off a bitter partisan war in Washington, D.C. The risk corridor program was essentially defunded by Congressional Republicans in late 2014. "The Republicans sabotaged the program," said Nick Bagley, a University of Michigan law school professor.

Amid the political sniping, Moda, Health Republic and other insurers were collateral damage.

-- Jeff Manning

503-294-7606, jmanning@oregonian.com