Where Do The Lawmakers Stand with Health Insurance Co-ops?

Where Do The Lawmakers Stand with Health Insurance Co-ops? in Politics and Legislation

Yesterday, an article in the Los Angeles Times reported that a public health insurance option has almost no chance of coming out of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, headed by Chairman and Senator Max Baucus from Montana.

So then we’re left with health insurance co-operatives. As we’ve talk about before, there’s a lot of doubt in the co-op idea.

But until now, we weren’t certain which positions that lawmakers were going to settle into.

This LA Times article gave a bit of insight of the positions from Republicans:

• A co-op is a better idea than the public health plan because it competes less with private insurers
• A co-op is still a “government takeover” of health care.
• Co-ops would get funding and tax-advantages, putting private companies at a disadvantage.

Democrats and liberal think tanks had their own assessment:

• Co-ops wouldn’t be effective enough in the marketplace.
• Co-ops wouldn’t be solvent, and would take years to establish.
• Co-ops would not be government-run at all, they would only require seed money to start.

The article, though, did say co-ops could be a point of some compromise. Supporters on both sides could agree that a co-operative would be cheaper because they don’t have turn over a profit.

Still, the effect of health insurance co-ops in the system would be a largely unknown.

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