What’s a Health Care Cooperative?

Right now, the only “public” option for affordable health insurance
is Medicare, which is only for those over 65 years old. If there isn’t
another “public” option for others, this has ramifications for Medicare
and Medicaid.

Right now in the U.S. there is a single payer government plan,
Medicare, for those over the age of 65. The plan works as well as it
can, given the debt load of the nation and the spiraling costs of
health care. There isn’t anything else like this idea for other people
who can’t afford health care or can’t afford much coverage at all. This
is where health care reform is supposed to come in.

The clear problem with health care reform that doesn’t have a
government option or component is that those who aren’t in Medicare or
Medicaid may wind up raiding those programs to get what they need. That
may mean a decrease in funding and greater difficulty in accessing
programs for those over 65; a sort of Robin Hood approach of robbing
the richer programs to pay for the poorer programs.

The substitution of the so-called health care cooperative for the
government option is simply a thinly veiled excuse for the creation of
more insurance companies. The usual example trotted out of a health
care cooperative is something called Group Health. In fact, Group
Health is an “insurance” company that reinvests its yearly revenues not
redistributes them among members. It is only governed like a
cooperative, making it one in name only.

Group Health’s fees are a tad lower than other insurance outfits,
records are computerized and physicians get performance based salaries
which seems to be a code word for “keeping costs down to a minimum.”
To access affordable health care by this route, those needing medical
assistance are assigned a team of primary care practitioners, meaning
you have no say in the matter. If access isn’t readily available to see
the doctor, you will see a nurse; no ifs, ands or buts. If keeping
medical costs down is the raison d’être for the insurance company,
chances are expensive tests are not ordered that often and treating
deathly ill patients would not be a preference.

Drugs and procedures, how medicine is practiced, and health
insurance coverage decisions are made by the company – made by an
insurance company. Think about that for a minute. Reading between the
lines here, Group Health isn’t really “group health,” it is an
insurance company with a bottom line to stay in business and make
money. Staying in business by cost cutting medical care is a scary idea.

Will this come to pass? Only time will tell, and since the health
care reform bill is gathering some dust right now, no one seems to know
what will transpire for the future. For now Medicare and Medicare
supplements are doing yeoman’s duty and allowing people the choice of
physicians. It may not be perfect, but it limps along, working for
“now.” Stay tuned for what the future may bring, and in the meantime do
some thinking about what alternatives might work for your health care.
The President has said if people like their health care they can keep
it. Can they?

Clelland Green is with Benepath.com, a leader in providing health
insurance quotes. Benepath provides individuals, families, and
businesses with affordable health insurance quotes in just a few mouse
clicks. To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.