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In previous blogs I have expressed my strong support for the public option in health care reform, including “Can the Democrats Deliver on Health Care Reform?”
One reader commented, “I agree with so much of what you say, but having had direct experience of co-ops, if done right, there is no reason why they can’t work just as well as the so-called ‘public option’”.
Health care co-ops were put forward by Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota as a substitute for a public option, which he reasoned could not pass the Senate. They might work well in his state where co-ops are a strong tradition, but in many other states with different demographics, there would be less probability of success. The idea seems to have come out of the blue.
Though I too have had positive experiences with co-ops, I remain skeptical that they could ever offer a credible alternative to the private insurance companies. I have been a member of ag co-ops, an electric co-op, a marketing co-op, and several credit unions, as well as a rural health co-op startup that closed after two years.
The problem with the co-op idea is that there are only a couple of successful functioning health co-ops in the United States today. Noone can make a prediction about how this idea might work. Where is the groundswell of public support rallying for co-ops?
So little is known about them, that there is none.
An NPR story: Senator Eyes Co-ops for All Fifty States quotes several knowledgeable experts on co-ops who reach the same conclusion.
What we might get with co-ops is a hodgepodge of fifty different versions, with varying results. Co-ops would be a risky experiment, not a comprehensive solution to a national problem. Why waste time, effort and money on such foolishness, when we need real solutions to our health care crisis.
The public option would still provide the best way to offer true competition in the insurance marketplace and bring down health care costs.
