The Case for Health Co-ops
The principle on which free marketers should stand or fall in the healthcare debate is fair and equal competition. Only through competition can costs be controlled without compromising quality. But competitive healthcare is not the same thing as for-profit healthcare. Nonprofits can compete too! Blue Cross began as a nonprofit after all. Indeed, Milton and Rose Friemdan in their joint autobiography em>Two Lucky People< expressed grave doubts about the profit motive in medicine.
Sen. Jon Kyl and other conservatives have expressed appropriate concern about government privileging co-ops through subsidies and lopsided regulation. Those are real worries. But co-ops without subsidies, expanded to a scale where they can meet for-profit insurers on equal grounds, offer exciting hope for improved care and lowered cost. It's worth a try anyway.