United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Health, Education, and Human Services Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1994-06-30 monographic deposited born digital GA 1.13:T-HEHS-94-196 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196 P0b002ee18038e9c7 f:the94196 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196 T-HEHS-94-196 Health insurance cost control Insurance premiums Health care services Health care cost control Employee medical benefits State-administered programs Non-government enterprises Administrative costs Health insurance Health maintenance organizations Clinton Health Care Plan Health Security Act National Health Care Reform Initiative Medicaid Program California Florida Minnesota Wisconsin Washington Testimony HEHS One of the few areas of widespread agreement in the health care debate is that small businesses and other small organizations have a tough time buying and keeping health insurance for their employees. Some small groups cannot obtain health insurance at any price because of the health status of just one of their workers. Even those able to secure coverage may face extremely high premiums. One response to this problem is to pool the buying power of individual small firms. Under insurance purchasing cooperatives, large numbers of relatively small organizations band together to reduce their administrative expenses, pool their insurance risk, and increase their clout to get a better deal. GAO believes that the criticism of coops as too regulatory and too bureaucratic has been overstated. Coops are a proven and economical way for firms to buy insurance. Coops generally operate with small staffs and have greater regulatory authority than many health reform proposals would allow. They rarely, however, administer subsidies for the poor or the unemployed, a key requirement under many health care reform bills. GAO suggests that more attention needs to be paid to several governance issues, including the composition of coops' governing boards, representational safeguards, and the potential for politicization of appointments. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196/html/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196.htm GAO/T-HEHS-94-196 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-HEHS-94-196 Testimony GAO/T-HEHS-94-196; Health Reform: Purchasing Cooperatives Have an Increasing Role in Providing Access to Insurance; Health insurance cost control Insurance premiums Health care services Health care cost control Employee medical benefits State-administered programs Non-government enterprises Administrative costs Health insurance Health maintenance organizations Clinton Health Care Plan Health Security Act National Health Care Reform Initiative Medicaid Program California Florida Minnesota Wisconsin Washington