Montana- Health Co-Op is a Good Idea for Uninsured Montanans

Critics of the 2-year-old Affordable Care Act don't like it — we're not sure they'd like anything that might actually work during a presidential election year — but it was heartening to see that Montana was on the short list of states to benefit from the first round of funding for health care co-ops.

Montana Health Cooperative got word last week that it would get $58 million in loans over a period of time to get started in the health insurance marketplace that will be created in the state and elsewhere in the next couple of years.

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The recent Assets & Opportunity Scorecard of the states by the Corporation for Enterprise Development said the state ranks 40th overall in uninsured rate, 48th in uninsured low-income parents and 45th in uninsured low-income children.

Some of those folks are the ones who stand to benefit by creation of the co-op.

John Morrison, former state insurance commissioner who helped form the Montana co-op and now is president of the National Alliance of Health Cooperatives, said the Montana organization "will be consumer-governed and will be responsive to consumer needs."

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But lo and behold two years after passage of the act — and about nine months after the newly formed Montana Health Cooperative announced that it planned to seek financial assistance under the act — the state co-op joins similar organizations in seven other states as the first federal loan recipients.

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Critics don't like the injection of government money into the health insurance system, but we'd wager most of them are either wealthy or have decent insurance mostly paid for by their employers.

The Montana Health Co-op won't be able to serve a large portion of the thousands of uninsured Montanans, but it might help create a marketplace that will be more accessible to them.


http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20120228/OPINION/202280306
Hat Tip: Great Falls Tribune