What's the difference between Blue Cross/Blue Shield and a health co-op?

BTW - here's what happened to another type of coop around here:

WHAT WENT WRONG AT AGWAY

http://cooperatives.aem.cornell.edu/pdf/resources/agway.pdf

Agway eyes sale of remaining assets
Efforts to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy continue to challenge Agway, New England’s regional farm supply and food marketing cooperative based at Syracuse, N.Y. A nationally known investment bank has been hired to evaluate whether to reorganize or sell Agway’s three remaining divisions: Country Products, Feed and Nutrition and Agway Energy. The energy division was not part of the Chapter 11 filing.

While Agway officials say they neither have plans to shut down the businesses nor liquidate them under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a controlled or orderly liquidation may be in the offing. Jeff Love, an attorney for the cooperative, said its goal was to derive the most value from the businesses for creditors. To strengthen that idea, Agway has asked the court to approve a complex plan of bonuses, capped at $6.4 million, for 50 to 80 key employees so they won’t bolt the company during this transition period.

Donald Cardarelli, Agway’s retiring chief executive officer, earlier received $1.6 million in severance pay plus extra compensation for his executive career transition service under a plan approved by the board, unsecured creditors’ committee and the bankruptcy court. Seven Agway employees who earlier shared bonuses totaling $546,000 for helping the cooperative prepare chapter 11 bankruptcy papers last fall, will have to repay them from future bonuses.

http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/may03/newsline.html

they used to be a non-profit co-op (until Reagan?)

Hospitals and doctors had a strong influence in settingup and running the Blue Cross and Blue Sheild prepaid health care plans.

Over half of them still are not-for-profits and/or mutual companies.

It's astounding to think about how much of the health care and health insurance system was non-profit and co-op before the 1980s. BC and BS were non-profit coops, as was HIP (Health Insurance Plans). Both worked very well.

Problem is that they will become targets for corporate takeovers, as were BCBS and HIP. They were destroyed by the profit sector, and even if the coops are successful, they will be targets for corporate takeover during any future republican administration. Reagan basically forced BCBS to become for profit entities.