Health Insurance cooperatives

[IrateCitizen]

Another thread got me going on this idea, and I'm wondering if the concept of setting up health insurance cooperatives has ever been toyed with at all, as an alternative to the larceny practiced by health insurance providers.

Most major unions run their own pension funds. What about the idea of bringing unions together to run their own health insurance plans for their members? That way, increases in health insurance costs would be tied to actual health care costs rather than corporate profit margins. The idea might work on a regional level as well. And just as credit unions provide a more cooperative banking approach than commercial banks, health insurance cooperatives could operate on similar principles.

Does anyone out there have any ideas of how to go further with this? It might be something worth exploring, a possibility to significantly affect the way that health insurance is approached in the US, and open the door for eventual single-payer coverage.

[redqueen]

1. Sounds like a good idea

Rank and file union members should also be interested and willing to float this idea to their union leaders. Not really sure how to move it forward.

[denverbill]

2. Instead of an 'insurance cooperative' how about a 'medical coop'?

'Company doctors' used to be pretty common. They would get a bad rap sometimes because since they were agents of the employer, they tended to treat everyone as healthy.

Some people don't like the idea, but I think it would be great to have a doctor right at the workplace. You wouldn't have to spend time waiting for appointments, driving to and from them, etc. Plus, the doctor at the workplace would be more likely to send you home if you were contagious since there would be incentive to keep overall illness rates down.

[IrateCitizen]

3. It's a possible piece of the puzzle, but there are problems with it

First off, what do you do if your workplace is a significant distance from your home -- like how I take the train almost 1 hr each way into NYC every day for work. Second, how does this help things if your kids get sick?

Don't get me wrong -- I like the idea of bringing as many pieces of the puzzle together, and the idea of medical co-ops that include doctors and hospitals as well as a means of insurance is attractive. I'm just playing devil's advocate and looking at potential problems as we go along as well.

[eridani]

4. A problem--risk pool is still too small

Most people don't get expensively sick. 15% of the population in every age group accounts for 85% of the expenses. The best way around this is a BIG risk pool--frinstance the population of the entire country, as in single payer.

[HootieMcBoob]

5. I've always wondered why there can't be not-for-profit insurance companies

Kind of like what you're saying I guess. I don't have my money in a traditional bank I have it in a not-for-profit credit union and it's much better. The people who manage it and work there are paid well but not outrageously and the board is unpaid, all of the profits go back into the credit union to serve the members. There should be a way to make a large pool not-for-profit company that insures peoples health. These companies should not be making billions of dollars off of us. They can send a man to the moon right?

[Cleita]

6. I thought of it as a way to get the Wall Street companies out of

the business of health care. There is also the free clinic model. The free clinic in Haight Ashbury in San Francisco, from the hey day of the hippies, is still in operation.

http://www.hafci.org/

If we don't do something to get the for profit companies out of the business, it will be almost impossible to change the system. They claim they believe in free enterprise and competition so they shouldn't object to non-profit cooperatives and clinics competing for health care dollars.

[Cleita]

7. ...

:kick: