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THE QUESTION
What About Co-Ops?
Lawmakers are considering alternatives to a government-sponsored public insurance plan. Are non-profit, member-owned health cooperatives a viable option for providing access to affordable care? If so, how should they be structured?
Posted by Rachel Saslow on August 18, 2009 9:35 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Co-Ops: A Design of Politics
In hopes of extinguishing concerns of a government takeover and reducing the political risk for moderate senators, health-care co-ops have emerged as a compromise solution to the highly-contested public option.
Posted by Arjun Parasher, on August 23, 2009 11:45 PM
Alternative to a Government Plan
Non-governmental, member-owned health-care cooperatives may well be a reasonable alternative to a government plan. The general public does not know enough about cooperatives but, given the uproar over health-cost reform, we should slow down and learn more about how they work.
Posted by Colleen Conway-Welch, on August 21, 2009 10:01 AM
Belaboring the Fix
Health-care cooperatives have been offered as middle ground, but in practice, it is questionable whether co-ops fit the scope and gravity of the problem.
Posted by Chris T. Pernell, on August 20, 2009 6:05 AM
Co-Ops Could Work As an Option
Co-ops provide two significant advantages: they would distance the government from the financial operations of the organization and, at a projected financial outlay of $6 billion, the start-up costs are significantly lower than the trillions projected for a public health plan.
Posted by Linda Leckman, on August 19, 2009 1:28 PM
Co-Ops: A Very Tall Order
Proponents can point to the impressive example of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. But how that unique organization might get replicated thousands of times over, so that all of the U.S. is served by the new, improved approach, is hard to reckon.
Posted by Elizabeth McGlynn, on August 19, 2009 12:08 PM
Co-Ops Are Not the Solution
Co-ops with their limited size, reach and negotiating ability, would be too weak to provide any real competition to the private insurance industry and we'd be in the same situation we are now with health-care costs spiraling out of control.
Posted by Georges Benjamin, on August 18, 2009 8:09 PM
Just Because You Build it Does Not Mean They Will Come
Just because a co-op is a non-profit doesn't mean it serves the public better as it relates to health care.
Posted by John J. Whyte, on August 18, 2009 5:48 PM
Keep Public Plan As a Fail-Safe
A non-profit co-op model health plan is worth a try particularly if it takes on some of the culture of a co-op: innovative strategies in the best interest of each individual.
Posted by Richard Norling, on August 18, 2009 10:02 AM
The Health Cooperative "Razzle Dazzle"
These programs are being pitched as something magical when, in fact, they are risky not-for-profit insurance businesses.
Posted by Mark Kelley, on August 17, 2009 10:02 PM
Are Member-Owned Cooperatives the Answer?
Unless healthy people are part of the insurance pool to subsidize the unhealthy, it will not work. To attract the healthy, young insured, there must be an individual mandate, that is, a requirement that every adult American purchase health insurance.
Posted by Michael Critelli, on August 17, 2009 4:21 PM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Mtampa: If we are to have health care for everyone we must support a public plan otherwise the big money will continue to milk the middle class. Wa...
