This is one plan they are looking at:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/07/health-care-insurance-democrat-opinions-columnists-public-option.html
Quote:
One model for a possible compromise was described in Tuesday's New York Times that examined the workings of the Group Health Cooperative (GHC) in Washington state.
This innovative not-for-profit program, which was founded by trade unions and farmers to fill a void in the marketplace, already accomplished many of the goals Obama has set for his reform agenda.
Most notably, it has succeeded in refocusing the incentive structure for delivering care on quality rather than quantity by paying doctors a base salary with bonuses for high performance instead of paying them based on the number of procedures they order.
The co-op model is no panacea. The GHC has a mixed record on controlling costs. It has clearly fared better than the private plans in Washington against which it competes but it has been forced to raise premiums anyway. (According to the Times, premiums have increased an average of 12% annually since 2000.)
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