RSS Feed
Co-Ops Are Not the Solution
Co-ops are unfortunately not the solution. Health co-ops as our only alternative to private insurers will fail to provide the level of competition and cost savings that is needed to truly reform our health system. A public option, with the stability and resources of the federal government backing it, would be a better and more formidable competitor to insurers and result in improved access to affordable care. Co-ops on the other hand, 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.
Co-ops will likely fall short in all three essential elements required of any new coverage option: cost, quality and access. Creating new co-ops will be expensive and since there will be multiple co-ops as opposed to one national plan, they can't take advantage the economy of scale of a national public option and build on the foundation that exists with other public plans. Health co-ops would lack the negotiation power of size to substantially lower prices, they would also be forced to spend a good bit of money on advertising and other administrative costs making them a poor substitute for the lower cost public plan, adverse selection for their risk pool would be a concern as well, as the co-op plan looked to ensure it had the funding to support anticipated claims for this underserved population. It remains to be seen how quickly co-ops can attract the level and quality of providers they will need to create a comprehensive plan or what the risk tolerance of providers will be to participate in a new untested system. Also, in question is the ability of these plans to keep the president's promise to allow people to keep their provider if they choose to.
Provider panels are an essential element of both quality and access, and health co-ops' capacity to ensure both in today's market is a real unknown.
The public option avoids all of these challenges and remains the best way to lower costs and improve access to care. The promise of health co-ops is an empty one that with few exceptions has gone the way of the buggy whip and carbon paper.
By
Georges Benjamin
|
August 18, 2009; 8:09 PM ET
| Category:
Cooperatives
,
Health Care Reform
,
Public option
Share This: 
Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Facebook
Previous: Just Because You Build it Does Not Mean They Will Come |
Next: Co-Ops: A Very Tall Order
Posted by: AnnaNurse | August 21, 2009 5:25 AM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
Co-ops , who dreamt up this idea, they may have a role in other area's of the economy but not in health matters. Perhaps you can throw some light on a matter that is of concern to all Americans, but never gets discussed. How can American taxpayer dollars be used to fund a universal health care plans in Afganistan and Iraq, yet Americans are being denied Universal Health care using part of there own taxpayer dollars. It looks like people oversea's are more a priority when it comes to health matters.
Who benefits from Co-ops, only the insurance comapnys. Co-ops will never be able to provide people with decent health care, it will result in more people going without proper medical care