Sen. Jay Rockefeller is meeting with President Obama this afternoon. Before his meeting, he sent a letter to Senators Baucus and Grassley:
TPM: Rockefeller to Baucus, Conrad: Co-ops Are a Sham (9/16/09)
In this letter, he states:
health insurance co-ops are not a real alternative to private health insurance and they are not a substitute for a strong public plan option, and we should not suggest to the American people that they would be.
He further states that the public option is a "must."
More, after the fold.
Sen. Rockefeller did research on the history of coops and the applicability to the heath insurance field. He wrote letters to the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Government Accounting Office (GAO) requesting detailed information about the current role of insurance coops in the heath care field.
In his letter to Baucus and Grassley, he describes what he found out as "astounding."
First, there has been no significant research into consumer co-ops as a model for the broad expansion of health insurance. What we do know, however, is that this model was tried in the early part of the 20th century and largely failed.
The USDA responded that government support for co-ops as a means of delivering universal health care was reduced during WWII and then terminated.
Sen. Rockefeller notes that
This is a dying business model for insurance.
He shows that moving forward with co-ops would expose Americans to a "health care model that has been tried and largely failed in the vast majority of the country."
Second, there is a lack of data and no analysis of the impact of existing health insurance cooperatives on consumers.
Third, all the consumer health insurance cooperatives identified by USDA and NCBA function just like private health inusrance companies. ... This further substantiates my point that health insurance co-ops are not a real alternative to private health insurance and they are not a substitute for a strong public plan option, and we should not suggest to the American people that they would be.
snip
Finally, there has been no analysis of the regulatory structure for existing health care cooperatives.
Sen. Rockefeller concludes:
It seems to me that, if you are proposing to implement consumer health insurance co-ops on the scale contemplated by the Finance Committee, then you certainly should know what has been the experience with them so far.
snip
I believe it is irresponsible to invest over $6 billion in a concept that has not proven to provide quality, affordable health care, when we know that a public health insurance option will rein in costs and save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Co-ops are dead and no one can revive them.
Thank you, Senator Rockefeller. They are a complete sham and no one should act as if co-ops were real reform.
Update I: Sen. Rockefeller is on the Ed Show on msnbc now with Conrad.
Valadon in the comments is summarizing for those w/o access to TVs now.
Update II: From the Plum Line
Is Senator Jay Rockefeller, staunch defender of the public option, optimistic that Obama may still be supportive of it? Rockefeller met with Obama today, and subsequently put out a statement proclaiming, suggestively, that "he and I are united in our efforts to deliver" on the promise of "affordable and effective health care for all Americans."
