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The Co-op Health Care Option, Compromise or Cop-out?
 Posted
8/19/2009 9:00:00 AM
After the outpouring of hostility in town hall meeting after town hall meeting, over the proposed government takeover of health care...the public option of health care is almost dead. The new direction in Obama's health care proposal: health care cooperatives. The bad news is the G-O-P is coming out of the woodwork to drive the co-oop idea over a cliff before it gets off the ground. Politics aside...what do we know about co-ops? And can co-ops realistically work?
Paul Hazen, the CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association
John Geyman, Professor Emeritus of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine
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Renee Bakos
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Part of the problem of former co-ops was availability. While cooperatives sought to provide more choice of insurance to participants, often times they failed to get consumers a broader range of options. Not all plans are available in all areas served by each cooperative, and individual employers using some cooperatives may limit the choice of plans their employees can select.
And without a large number of participants, co-ops essentially were subject to the whims of the insurance market, unable to use market influence to get consumers better deals on coverage. Co-ops are a bridge to nowhere. If congress is worried about people screaming at them at town hall meetings, they've seen nothing yet.
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Posted By
Concerned citizen
On
8/20/2009 6:21:12 AM
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