What Are “Co-ops”?

We’ve all heard that the Congressional health care “reform” efforts have brought up two major options for consideration. The first is the “public option”… essentially a government funded and controlled health insurance company to “compete” with private insurers. The inevitable result is predictable, as the government program could undercut the private insurers, survive off of tax dollar infusions, and we would have a de facto single-payer system.

The second option is “co-ops”… but what exactly are they? The details of the Senate plan have not been released, so we’re all just hanging out here with a vague understanding of what a co-op plan might mean for America. Benjamin Shapiro takes a look at this in his latest op-ed piece.

What exactly are co-ops? There are several different definitions. Some co-ops involve private ownership of an insurer; the insurer is operated on a nonprofit basis. Individuals can then buy insurance from the co-op. Another co-op option would be the Ace Hardware model, in which insurers pool their resources and sell to individuals on a for-profit basis.

That isn't what Conrad is talking about, however. According to the Associated Press, "Conrad said $6 billion would be needed – in loans and grants to help doctors, hospitals, businesses and other groups form nonprofit cooperative networks." This isn't a privately held nonprofit, and it's not a privately held for-profit. It's a government-subsidized business that will be indirectly responsible for administering government policy.

The health care co-ops are Fannie Mae.

And we all know how well Fannie Mae has done. So, why would we want our health care controlled by another version of Fannie Mae?

The rest of the article is excellent, and I recommend you read it.

UPDATE: Here's an excellent piece making the case that the "co-ops" idea is just a trojan horse, because it leads to a single-payer in the end.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/08/another_road_to_single_payer.html