Co-opting the Co-op

Slate.com ^ | July 27, 2009 | Christopher Beam

[Man50D]

That kooky health care cooperative idea is still the Democrats' best shot at bipartisanship.

When Sen. Kent Conrad first proposed the idea of health care cooperatives back in June, the response was somewhere between Huh? and Huh. But as the debate over reform escalates, the attitude toward the formerly long-shot proposal may be getting closer to Aha!

The past few weeks have amounted to a long, cold shower for Democratic health care proposals. First Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf told Congress that the House and Senate health committee bills would not only fail to "bend the curve" of ever-rising costs of health care but that the curve "is being raised." On Saturday, the CBO squashed the notion that a new Medicare advisory board would save the government much money. Then on Sunday, Sen. Mitch McConnell stated that Senate Republicans would not support a plan that included a public option—hardly a surprise, but essentially killing any possibility of a bipartisan solution that also meets the administration's stated goal. Meanwhile, the Democratic leadership punted its own deadline until after the August recess.

[sbark]

He’s from N.Dak....a farm economy state historically high on coop farm input suppliers....

bottom line.......Coops are the way to equal shareing of misery......but then again that is the premise of any democrat health care proposal.....

with the end goal of any democrat HCare plan being so intrusive and power grabbing it can be stated it is the way around the Bill of Rights

[goodtomato]

This needs to be researched. I think it has legs. I have proposed this same solution for hurricane insurance for us folks who reside inland. Some local Chamber of Commerce groups have these plans already. You purchase catastrophic insurance for the the “big ticket” items and the co-op provides for the “every day” stuff. We don't need the Fed to solve this problem for us. Heck, if they would tackle the illegal problem, the uninsured number would drop to less than half of the number of uninsured they claim. Sort of like the old generic isle in the supermarket(today it's ALDI). The County I reside in (population 99,000)has a health clinic that charges on a scale, considering your income. Good care for every day stuff. We can do this ourselves without the Fed.

[tbw2]

If Medical Co-ops were so great, there would be more of them. What about mandating that all hospitals be non-profit? Would that achieve more for patients with lower taxes? ObamaCare Jokes Obama Jokes

[Semperfiwife]

Let us return to a long long time ago when we bartered for goods and services. We used very little or no electricity. We made our clothes and quilts by hand and handed down our items to the next generation. We hunted for food and ate what we grew in a garden. Oh, I forgot, we all have to convert and become Amish.

[Man50D]

We don't need the Fed to solve this problem for us.

The Coop program would be more government intrusion. That is the point of the article.

[tbw2]

I prefer a world with antibiotics, MRIs after car crashes, air conditioning (I’m in Texas, grandmother tells me what it was like before AC), telecommuting, and in general, civilization.