The Conrad Health Reform Compromise
As Congress delves into its much anticipated health care reform debate, the discussion thus far has been framed as a black vs. white clash between those (mostly
Jul 31, 20206.5K Shares597.9K Views
As Congress delves into its much anticipated health care reform debate, the discussion thus far has been framed as a black vs. white clashbetween those (mostly Democrats) in support of a public plan to compete with private insurers, and those (mostly Republicans) for whom such an option is a non-starter.
Enter Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who earlier this week floated vague ideas about creating cooperatives that would offer consumers a new coverage option that wouldn’t be run by the government. On Tuesday, Conrad explained his rationale to Fox News:
“„The other side very much wants to have a competing delivery model to provide additional competition … for-profit insurance companies. And the cooperative model does that as well, because it’s not for profit and so poised to compete well with for-profit insurance companies. [...]
“„[T]he strong objection from some Republicans and some Democrats to public option is that it’s government run, that it’s perhaps a back-door approach to single payer and you’ve got government setting rates. This avoids all that because it’s not run by the government. It’s membership-controlled, membership-run, just like all the cooperatives around the country that already exist.
Congressional interest in the concept, Conrad says, “is growing.”
Hajra Shannon
Reviewer
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