NCBA Supports Health Co-operatives

Written by David Griffiths Tuesday, 18 August 2009 10:10

The USA National Cooperative Business Association is supporting health co-operatives as the Democratic Congress is considering co-operatives as an alternative to a public health insurer. The original idea is for a public insurer to provide competition in the health insurance market. Republican opponents claim that it will be unfair competition and that public health insurance is socialism.
The National Cooperative Business Association is the peak body for co-operatives throughout the USA and represents co-operatives in agriculture, food distribution and retailing, childcare, credit unions, housing, healthcare, energy and telecommunications.

In a 11 June 2009 news release the NCBA has argued that cooperatively owned businesses represent a major contribution to the U.S. and world economy and that co-operatives are businesses that are jointly owned and democratically run. according to the NCBA, co-operatives in the USA hold US$3.1 trillion in assets and create two million jobs and US$652 billion in revenue.

The NCBA argued that cooperatives save money for members by aggregating demand for specific services, whether it's health insurance, pharmaceuticals or hospital supplies. It argued that in a health insurance purchasing cooperative consumers or businesses can band together to purchase private health policies in bulk and pass savings along to members.