Health Co-ops Are Making Medicine Fun Again

by L.A.S.

Another option when it comes to dispensing health care is the health co-op, where the patient members are in control of the entity.
One example is the Group Health Cooperative in Oregon. It was created way back in 1947 by farmers and loggers who pooled their resources to cover the most basic primary care. Since that time, the co-op has grown to over a half million members, the third largest insurer in Oregon.

It operates similar to an HMO. It has premiums and co-pays. Patients have to see providers who are in the network. Doctors work for the company and are paid a salary. This means they are not forced to cram twenty or more patients into their daily schedules.
They have more time with each patient and can be more proactive.

One of the great features of the Oregon co-op is that they have invested in electronic medical records which reduces errors, enables doctors to coordinate care, and also lets patients check their charts online. Whether it was this innovation or the emphasis on primary care, the result has been a drop in emergency room costs by 29 percent.
But replicating the success of Group Health is a real challenge. Many health care co-ops were born in the Great Depression and folded later when government funding was withdrawn.
However, HHS Cabinet Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has signaled that the Obama administration might support the idea of co-ops as an option to reduce the cost of health care.
It is an option worth serious consideration, even with all the challenges of starting one from the ground up.
An article on health co-ops ran in USA Today and you may read it here: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2009-08-20-group-health-insurance_N.htm