7 Principles for Health Co-ops

Health-care cooperatives seem the big coming idea in the Senate version of healthcare reform. Last month, the Heritage Foundation offered 7 key principles to ensure that co-ops do not become a disguise for a government-run plan.

Health-care cooperatives seem the big coming idea in the Senate version of healthcare reform. Last month, the Heritage Foundation offered 7 key principles to ensure that co-ops do not become a disguise for a government-run plan. These principles make more sense today than ever:

• Cooperatives must be voluntary, open to individuals who choose to freely join together without coercion or restraint, and controlled by its members, not the government;
• Cooperatives must be viable on their own and must not receive anti-competitive government support in any form including assumption of risk, "start-up" capital, or continuous subsidies to the organization--which would turn them into government-preferred public plans;
• Health plans must be selected only by a co-op's members, not the government;
• Competitiveness must be based on the member strength of the cooperatives and not on any favored status, including government subsidies, access to government pricing, coverage or coding decisions, or regulatory intervention;
• Any necessary regulation to keep a level playing field among health plans must be reserved for the states;
• State reforms should open doors to competition, including the competition that cooperatives would bring; and
• All individuals--including those who receive public subsidies and individuals eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP--should be free to join cooperatives of their choice.