In testimony before the Federal Advisory Board on the Affordable Care Act's Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program, The Commonwealth Fund's Sara Collins said that the new health plans hold promise to provide efficient, high-quality care that responds to consumers' needs. The Affordable Care Act provides $6 billion in loans and grants for the development of new nonprofit health cooperatives to be sold as qualified health plans through state insurance exchanges and the individual and small-group insurance markets.
"The experience of health cooperatives in the United States has demonstrated that the most successful organizations have been those with strong links to high-performing, integrated delivery systems that have been able to provide high-quality integrated and coordinated health care," said Collins. "The Department of Health and Human Services can draw on the experience of successful health cooperatives as it lays the ground rules for the development of a substantial number of new organizations across the country."