Health stories in the news – July 7th

New York Times profiles Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative

Opponents to a public health insurance plan are proposing private-sector insurance cooperatives as an alternative, and they are pointing to Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative as an example of what such cooperatives can accomplish, writes New York Times reporter Kevin Sack in today’s issue of the paper.

Group Health has been credited for establishing a collaborative practice model among its health providers that emphasizes lower cost primary care and prevention.

Sack writes:

“…those innovations have made Group Health a prototype for a political compromise that could unclog health care negotiations in the Senate and lead to a bipartisan deal. After a month of brainstorming, including briefings from Group Health executives, the Senate Finance Committee seems poised to propose private-sector insurance cooperatives — instead of a new government health plan — as its primary mechanism for stoking competition and slowing the growth of medical costs.

“But state officials say Group Health’s impact on holding down costs has been mixed. And its successes may have less to do with its governance — by a board that is elected by patients — than with its ownership of a vast network of clinics and specialty care centers.”

To learn more:

• Read Kevin Sack’s article: Health Co-op Offers Model for Overhaul.
• Visit Group Health Cooperative’s Web page.

Does a single-payer system offers best “pay-go” health reform?

In a Seattle Times op-ed column, Dr. John Geyman, emeritus professor of Family Medicine at the University of Washington, argues that the best way to meet the demand of Republicans and some conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats that health reform pays for itself is to adopt a single-payer system.

A single-payer system offers the “ultimate” pay-as-you-go (pay-go) alternative, Geyman says.

Single-payer financing (public financing coupled with a private delivery system, a reformed “Medicare for All”) . . . will yield savings of some $400 billion a year. That’s enough to assure universal coverage for all Americans while eliminating all co-pays and deductibles — the ultimate pay-go.

Single-payer will give us far more efficient, affordable, effective and reliable health care than our present multipayer system. Health insurers have known for years that they can’t compete on a level playing field with single-payer, and have only been surviving by favorable tax policies and other subsidies from the government.

To learn more:

• Read Dr. Geyman’s op-ed column: A pay-go option for health-care reform.
• Read Rick Schmitt’s “True Believers” article below.

Tags: Dr. John Geyman, Group Health Cooperative, Health Insurance, Health Policy, Health-care Reform, Insurance, Public-health Insurance, Single-payer

Category: Group Health Cooperative, Health Insurance, Health-care Policy, Healthcare Reform, Hospital News, University of Washington