Health Insurance Co-operatives in the USA
Last Updated on Friday, 21 August 2009 07:29 Written by David Griffiths Wednesday, 19 August 2009 11:58
Five health insurance co-operatives already exist in the USA - Group Health Cooperative of Washington, HealthPartners, Group Health Cooperative of Eau Claire, First Plan and Group Health Cooperative of Southern Wisconsin. They have a collective membership of over two million people.?This information was provided by the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) in a 5 August 2009 letter to the Honorable John D. Rockefeller, United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
The existing consumer-owned health care co-operatives in Washington, Minnesota and Wisconsin are based on the prepaid Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) model of providing health care.
In addition, since the 1970's, in response to rising health insurance costs, employers have been forming groups to purchase health insurance. Many purchasing groups are co-operatives. More than 25 states in the USA have legislation that promote state or employer-sponsored purchasing co-operatives.
According to the NCBA, health insurance purchasing co-operatives, worker co-operatives providing health care services and hospital supply purchasing co-operatives have increased over the past decade. University of Wisconsin data from 192 health care co-operatives concludes that collectively these co-operatives account for US$1 billion assets and more than US$3 billion in revenue.
