2nd Front, Against Health-"Insurance" Companies!!

[Mr. Shaman]

I'll bet the mega-insurers never saw THIS coming!!!!!

​

"As President Obama traveled to the heartland to sell a government-run insurance plan as essential to health-care reform, Senate negotiators began to explore a possible bipartisan compromise modeled after rural cooperatives.

Creating a "public option" to compete with private coverage has emerged as a significant hurdle as Congress begins to debate legislation to restructure the nation's health-care system, with the aim of delivering a bill to Obama by mid-October. Opponents include most Republicans and some moderate Democrats, who warn that the government would enjoy an unfair cost advantage and force private insurers out of business.

But many lawmakers who are skeptical of a federal plan expressed interest in an alternative proposal by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), to create member-run health-care cooperatives. The co-op approach was discussed by Obama and Senate health-care negotiators at a White House meeting on Wednesday, participants said. And on Thursday, the idea dominated a closed-door meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, one of two panels involved in crafting the Senate bill.

Obama told supporters in a local gymnasium here that he would seek to create a health-insurance exchange to allow one-stop shopping. But the president added: "One of the options in the exchange should be a public insurance option -- because if the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it will keep them honest and help keep prices down."

The Conrad proposal is modeled after rural electricity, farming and telephone cooperatives that are owned and organized by members. The entities would negotiate rates with health-care providers and would have to meet the same licensing and regulatory requirements as private insurance companies, the senator said.

"I tried to come up with something that is not government-controlled, is a competitive delivery model, but nonprofit," Conrad said in an interview. "It would be on a level playing field with everybody else with, with a different ownership structure."​

 

[pocketfullofshells]

sounds like a good idea to look at, its in part what I have suggested before.

 

[Bunz]

Where I live, the utilities are public owned coops. It works alright for the most part. I am not sure if it will translate well to health insurance though. Ill have to read more on it.

I still think the IHS system would work best in America. It already does a fair job for the Native people. Also, something similar to the Australian system would work here as well.

This notion that medical insurance companies can raise rates for arbitrary reasons, cut off care, or drop someone altogether is bogus.