Poor Substitutes — Why Cooperatives and Triggers Can't Achieve the Goals of a Public Option

Abstract

According to a recent survey, a majority of U.S. physicians support health care reform that includes a new national public health insurance plan, which would compete with private plans.1 Polls have shown that a substantial majority of Americans support the public option as well.Yet the idea has occasioned considerable controversy on Capitol Hill. Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) recently unveiled his draft bill (the chairman's “mark”), which contains no competing public plan. Instead, it substitutes the largely untested idea of providing federal loans and start-up funds to encourage the creation of decentralized, member-run health care “cooperatives.” Another . . .