Health reformers have at least one ally on the Senate Finance Committee in Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who’s a resolute advocate of a robust public option. But since his panel–or at least the six members of the panel who are designing health care legislation–seems to have settled on a privately held, non-profit co-operative model, Rockefeller has some questions. “Some have suggested that, instead of creating a strong public plan option, Congress should adopt a cooperative approach to health insurance coverage,” Rockefeller writes in a letter to the Government Accountability Office.
Like so many Americans, I have set about the task of learning more about cooperatives–with a specific focus on how such cooperatives might be relevant to the discussion on comprehensive health reform. I have been alarmed to learn that there is a dearth of reliable information available about health care cooperatives.
You can read the entire letter here. The government has plenty of experience running a “public option” (see: Medicare, Medicaid). But private sector co-ops have a mixed record and a national health insurance co-operative is an all-but but theoretical construct–so Rockefeller wants the GAO to explain a bit more. He wants answers by early August.
