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Why participate in a cooperative?

Most cooperatives are not-for-profit membership organizations. They exist solely to serve the interests of their members, and their governing boards are drawn from among members. Health care cooperatives use their collective bargaining strength to negotiate on behalf of their members.

Health care cooperatives, sometimes called alliances, are formed by employers to combine their buying power to purchase the highest quality health benefits at most competitive price possible. It is widely known that hospitals, insurers and other health care providers offer price discounts to large purchasers in exchange for the volume of covered lives they can deliver as patients. Similarly, a cooperative of individuals or multiple small employers can often purchase the same services at lower cost than individuals or small employers can.

What makes Co-op Care different?

We would expect that many of you are familiar with health insurance purchasing alliances and maybe some of you have even had bad experiences. We certainly had that in mind when crafting the legislation that allows us to form cooperatives.

Co-op Care intentionally addresses the common pitfalls that eventually lead to the downfall of these programs, such as providing a disincentive that serves to prevent members from enrolling and disenrolling at any point during the program and agreeing to a certain participation level in order to offer the program.

Co-op Care also allows for a greater focus on health and wellness. By taking away much of the worry of how to pay for health insurance, cooperative members can focus on health decisions and becoming healthier overall. This benefits not only the member, but also their communities.

Throughout history cooperatives have formed to solve problems for their members. Co-op Care is no exception. By pooling risk and purchasing power cooperative, allowing members to take an active role in health insurance decisions, and promoting the overall health and wellbeing of members, Co-op Care is working to make a healthier Wisconsin.