Actually, this slide makes a number of huge mistakes by conflating “exchanges” with “co-ops.” They're two completely separate concepts. A health insurance exchange is a heavily regulated “market” for individual insurance programs. It may include private plans, co-ops, and a public plan… or any mix of those three. The point, however, is to create a means of gradually moving people away from employment-based plans to individual plans by creating an environment in which individual consumers won't get screwed over. A “co-op,” by contrast, is an idea for a privately owned, “non-profit” insurance program that Senator Kent Conrad basically made up a few months ago as an excuse to oppose a government-managed insurance program. Co-ops are very poorly defined and it's possible that money-grubbing insurance giants like Blue Cross/Blue Shield would even be able to qualify for “co-op” status. So basically: Exchanges = Great Idea
Co-Ops = Underdeveloped and potentially bad idea With that said, this presentation badly mischaracterizes the plans floating around congress. The Wyden-Bennett plan is based around a strong exchange, but the presentation doesn't categorize it as an exchange-based plan… despite the fact that it is arguably the best and most viable example of such a plan. Similarly, Obama's plan and HR3200 also include exchanges (but not co-ops). The only plan that will likely have a co-op will be the bill coming out of the Senate Finance Committee.
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