Conrad's Incredibly Dishonest “FAQ” On Co-ops

Conrad has created a frequently asked questions web page about his co-ops plan. Of course, Conrad does not address any of the important questions about his co-ops plan.

You know he is purposely being incredibly intellectually dishonest because he answers the question, “Have co-ops proven themselves a successful business model in other industries?”

No Conrad, the question isn't have co-ops been successful in other industries. The single most important question about health insurance co-ops (and one he does not answer) is, “Have they been tried in the past, and have they been successful at reducing costs for Americans?”

The answer to that question is that hundreds have been tried in the past and all but a handful have failed, gone out of business, or become for-profit companies. The idea has been tried repeatedly before and has failed.

A few years ago, Iowa tried to encourage health insurance co-ops. Only one was formed and failed within two years. There is every reason to suspect the same pattern will be repeated with Conrad's idea of small state based co-ops.

Conrad's co-ops proposal is worse than an untested, ill-conceived idea. It is an idea that has been tried and tested. It is an idea that we know will fail.

If Conrad wanted to truly address the thousands of unanswered questions about his idea, he should simply release the legislative language for his idea.

Crossposted on The Walker Report

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