Say No to Kent Conrad's Co-op plan on health care reform

[rhombus]

If you think the health insurance industry is going to lie down and accept a competitive public option plan, think again. They have come up with another 'plan' with the help of their friend, Sen. Kent Conrad(D-ND), who should know better than to compromise with masters at their own game.


Robert Reich sounds the alarm:

Here's the latest contortion from Senate Dems trying to win over a few Republicans to a "public option:" Let nonprofits create health-care cooperatives, and call them the public option. Kent Conrad came up with this bamboozle. Finance chair Baucus is impressed, and some Republicans -- even Grassley -- seem interested. Watch your wallets.

Nonprofit health-care cooperatives won't have any real bargaining leverage to get lower prices because they'll be too small and too numerous. Pharma and Insurance know they can roll them. That's why the Conrad compromise is getting a good reception from across the aisle, just as Olympia Snowe's "trigger" (whereby no public option until some time down the pike, and only if Pharma and Insurance don't bring down and extend coverage a tad) is also gaining traction.

The truth is that there's only one "public option" that will truly bring down costs and premiums -- one that's national in scale and combines its bargaining power with Medicare, and is allowed to negotiate lower drug prices and lower doctor and hospital fees. And that's precisely what Pharma and Insurance detest, for exactly the same reason.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/06/the-latest-public-option-bambo.php

[babylonsister]

1. Pelosi shot it down in the House:

Pelosi shot it down in the House:

Pelosi rejects proposal to skirt government healthcare
By Alexander Bolton
Posted: 06/11/09 12:11 PM


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected a Senate proposal floated in recent days to create privately-run healthcare cooperatives in place of government-run insurance plans.

Pelosi told reporters on Thursday morning that House Democrats want healthcare reform to include a government-run insurance option to ensure that all Americans can receive affordable healthcare.

“Not instead of a public option, no,” Pelosi said when asked about the proposal unveiled by some Senate Democrats to set up privately-run co-ops.

“In our house there is strong support for a public option,” Pelosi said.

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/pelosi-rejects-prop...

[AtomicKitten]

9. It's Pelosi in the House versus the Blue Dogs in the Senate. n/t

[rockymountaindem]

2. Instead of pandering for oh, five or seven Republican votes...

why not just craft legislation you know will provide a good job, pass it yourselves (Democrats) and then take full credit down the line when it works? Take a risk for once people!

I know that's too much to ask, but still...

[DJ13]

3. The insurance co.'s have so muddied the waters on "reform"

Im about to the point the whole clusterfuck should be voted down so that our health care system gets so bad in a couple of years the politicians wont have any choice but to ignore the insurance lobby.

[izquierdista]

4. I was going to comment on this yesterday

I had to think about it a bit. Conrad was comparing it to the rural electric cooperatives, and IF they were structured like that, then maybe it would be a good idea. But that would only be IF they provided service to ALL people in their service area at the same price and IF they were backed by the federal government like the Rural Electrification Act did, and IF they could bargain as a group for better drug prices. Those are a lot of IFs, and I'm afraid that Conrad is a country bumpkin about to be taken by some big city insurance slickers.

[andym]

5. Good analysis

If the coops could act together to negotiate prices, and if they are backed by the federal govt, then the coop idea would just be a form of management, and might be a way to get a public option where the management was not federal, but the benefits were. Perhaps this would be like the France's healthcare system where the government funds various non-profits insurance-like organizations to provide first tier health care. The closer they come to France's system (rated #1 by WHO) the better.

In any case, if single-payer does not happen (and a public option does not happen or is too limited0, it would be very helpful to promote non-profit health insurance entities, which might have less incentive to maximize their own profit and thereby introduce inefficiency (extra cost) into the system. For example, I think Blue Shield of California is a non-profit health insurer that currently exists. I wonder how much extra cost they contribute to the system compared to for-profit insurers like Healthnet.

[Sebastian Doyle]

6. Conrad Co-ops: Not. Fucking. Acceptable.

Feel free to put it in your signature, if you want! :)

[Better Believe It]

7. K & R

[Teaser]

8. Only a HUGE coop could do the trick

Germany runs such a system. Broken into small pieces like this, it can't do anything

[flpoljunkie]

10. Robert Reich: Don't be fooled by labels. Demand the real thing.

Whatever it's called -- public option or chopped liver -- it has to be able to squeeze Pharma, Insurance, and the rest of the medical-industrial complex. And the more likely it is to squeeze them, the more they'll fight it. And the greater the opposition from Republicans, and from Dems who either believe any bill has to have some Republican support or who have sold themselves out to the medical biggies.

As long as single payer is off the table, then we need a real public option. Don't be fooled by labels. Demand the real thing.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/06/the-latest-public-option-bambo.php