Healthcare Cooperatives

While still small in number, healthcare related cooperatives have emerged as a comprehensive solution to cure what ails the healthcare system in this country. They are the key component to:

• keeping healthcare costs and insurance premiums affordable for consumers and small businesses;
• controlling the high cost of prescription drugs;
• helping community-owned, non-profit hospitals remain independent;
• improving the quality of home-based healthcare and assisted living;
• helping small independent pharmacists compete with big box stores, allowing them to offer locally available prescription drugs.

All types of cooperative—consumer, worker, and purchasing can be found in the health care sector.

Consumer cooperatives are owned by the people who get the needed treatments providing them a voice in their personal healthcare decisions. Two good examples of healthcare consumer cooperatives is Health Partners with over 750,000 members in Minnesota and Group Health with over 550,000 members in Washington and Idaho.

Worker cooperatives are owned by the employees of the cooperative. This model of business provides better pay and ownership to their employees, resulting in improved living standards for health care worker-owners, higher worker retention rates, and improved quality of care. Visit Cooperative Care of Wisconsin to learn more.

Purchasing and shared services co-ops are growing in importance in healthcare. Purchasing co-ops now provide services to hospitals, independent pharmacies, and state governments. VHA is a good example of a hospital group purchasing cooperative and Wisconsin Rx will provide information on independent pharmacy cooperatives.

For more detailed information on Healthcare cooperatives, please visit the National Cooperative Business Association.