What prevents the creation of not for profit Health Insurance Co-ops ?

[UndertheOcean]

with the coming of the mandate , those of us who refuse out of principal to buy a product from a for-profit company , can pool together and join those entities.

[Jamastiene]

1. I was thinking about that earlier.

Hopefully, someone will share any knowledge they may have on this idea.

[midnight]

3. I was thinking the same thing....

[UndertheOcean]

2. This link explains alot

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/so-whats-a-health-insurance-coop-anyway/

[eridani]

4. Irrelevant. There are such things now.

Group Health Cooperative was started by unions in 1949. There was originally one standard prepaid benefits package--no pre-existing conditions and no age rating. Then when the for profit shitstains entered the HMO biz in large numbers, GH started losing all its younger subscribers to the age-rated policies of the for profits. Now Group Health basically operates like any for-profit plan, even though it remains non-profit. Moral of the story? Co-ops don't mean jackshit if the for profits force them into joining the race to the bottom.

[scubadude]

5. Nothing prevents them from being created now...

and I believe a few exist.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield would be examples, but they abandoned the "not for profit" category in 1994 for the most part.

Scuba