Co-Op Option Offers Compromise In Health Debate

All Things Considered by Joanne Silberner | Jul. 1, 2009 (Special Report)

(Audio - streaming) A new health insurance idea is circulating through the Senate Finance Committee and may appear in its final plan for revamping the nation's health care system. The idea is to stimulate the creation of co-ops where people could go to buy low-cost, high-quality health insurance.

Health co-ops are not a new idea. Two large ones, Group Health in Seattle and HealthPartners in Minneapolis, are more than 50 years old. But the thought that co-ops could ... Full Story »

Posted by Kristin Gorski

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Paul Belle-Isle
2.8
 by Paul Belle-Isle - Jul. 2, 2009

This is probably the most in-depth examination of the healthcare co-ops proposed by Senator Kent Conrad that I have encountered to date. Unfortunately, this depth is reached narrowly, and neither effectively places the co-ops in broader context, nor addresses the main criticism of them: namely that only in rare occasions will they ever achieve the membership numbers needed for effective bargaining power.

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