Co-Op Village Foundation, Inc.

Co-Op Village Foundation, Inc.

Good Neighbor Health Insurance Cooperative

The Good Neighbor Health Co-op program is a member owned, member run Cooperative Association. Good Neighbor is not insurance. It is a health care cost sharing program, like insurance plans used to be.

I. OVERVIEW
	A. GNHC will be a member-owned cooperative, possibly incorporated in Wisconsin
		1. Wisconsin has best co-op laws 2. State Government support of co-ops. 3. Alabama has no legal status for such a co-op 4. Florida co-op status?
	B. Blue Cross/Blue Shield is a cooperative owned by a few doctors. It is not an insurance company, and therefore does not need to follow state insurance laws. Yet it controls 94% of the third-party payment system in Alabama. C. Like BC/BS, Good Neighbor is not an insurance company, but a mutual-aid cooperative, with Care Entrée to lower overall costs and keep them at a reasonable level for almost anyone. D. Purpose:
		1. To provide a healthcare payment program (HPP) covering and encouraging cost effective integrative healthcare. 2. To provide an HPP more cost-effective than what is currently available. 3. To allow members power to choose what to spend their healthcare dollars on. 4. To provide a HPP system which recognizes customers with lower use of healthcare resources, and encourage healthy habits. 5. To provide a VOLUNTARY means of sharing healthcare costs. 6. To break the stranglehold of BC/BS on state and nationwide healthcare policy and dollars. 7. To provide a cost-effective alternative to mandatory national health insurance.
II. CARE ENTRÉE COMPONENT
	A. $70 per month per individual or family B. Not an insurance company (see www.careentree.com) C. Required for membership in the association. D. Provides access to BC/BS/Aetna/third-party payer rates for hospital and outpatient services (savings of 15 to 85%). E. Provides decreased rates for dental, vision, prescription medicines, and alternative medicine (usually 15% or more). F. $200 deductible, $2000 maximum Emergency Room policy. G. No pre-existing condition exclusions 1. 30 day waiting period for hospitalizations H. Includes Medical Savings Escrow account 1. $5 per month goes to account management 2. After-tax dollars, not pre-tax dollars as in a Medical Savings Account 3. A good place to keep money you used to pay for insurance. 4. Account may be used to accumulate funds to pay for non-covered services, such as cosmetic surgery, or for patient portion of covered services such as massage, vitamins, etc. I. Includes “Smart Card” containing medical history information, emergency care information, disability continuation coverage, long-term care coverage, travel discounts
III. PAYMENT SHARE COMPONENT
	A. Centrally controls the distribution of member monthly contributions
		1. Based on Amish and Mennonite “Needs Sharing” models from the 1960s 2. Several decades-old associations in practice, including
			a. Good Samaritan (317) 787-9770 (available to government and Christian workers) http://www.web-ministry.com/linear.php?postID=465 b. Samaritan Ministeries International 309-686-8868 (9,000 members) c. Medi-Share 877-732-2860 http://medi-share.org/ (60,000 members) Please see this link. They have two kinds of policies for differing amounts of coverage and deductable. Shared $24 Million in 2003.
	B. Members pay monthly fee to administration, (or directly to members with claims). C. Monthly fees based on underwriter’s projections:
		1. Single, couple, family 2. Health habits (smoking, drinking, etc) 3. Age 4. Pre-existing conditions (may need to wait to accept these)
	D. Central control of distribution of member funds to meet member health needs.
		1. Provides a monthly newsletter with health information. 2. Newsletter also informs individual members where to send their monthly contributions. 3. Provides central control via newsletters, vs centrally receiving and distributing funds (third party payer). 4. May hire out this service to outside insurance agency, Medi-Share, or handle it in-house 5. Costs for this administration paid by yearly membership fees
	E. Coverage might be given only to those not currently covered under other plans.
		1. Initial Co-op Village members may have governmental insurance already (Medicare, Medicaid), especially if they are chronically ill. 2. Consider accepting even ill members in some groups, if large enough (chiropractic group, entire village) to spread risk 3. Alternatively, may need to delay payment of claims until 90 days and 3rd claim paid, as in Good Samaritan Program. This would insure that we have enough capital to cover our claims.
			a. Good Samaritan waives the 90 day policy for groups of 5 or more families joining together.
	F. Covers up to $50,000 of costs(?) G. Accrual of fees may yield enough money to establish legal insurance entity ($1,000,000 minimum bond in many states). H. Committee of members/directors may decide what services will be covered
IV. Other components
	A. Pre-tax Medical Savings Account, if available to patient through employer
		1. Probably does not apply to Coop members.
	B. Umbrella, high-deductible major medical group account for the whole group, for $50,000 up to $1,000,000 in claims, with lifetime $5,000,000 maximum. C. Establish stable of certified alternative practitioners to refer patients to.
		1. Care Entrée has such a panel. 2. Alternative practitioners agree to 15% minimum price reduction for group patients. 3. Refer members to contracted practitioners, so they will prosper.
	D. Long-term goals
		1. Financial wealth for everyone involved in promoting the success of the organization. 2. Establish many smaller, independent but linked cooperatives. 3. Establish local health clinics with similar construction 4. Support community locally and nationally/globally 5. Schools of natural healing 6. Credit Union(s) to serve the financial needs of members 7. 10% of profits to education and arts 8. Global outreach
This is a basic outline. For further information, see GNHC PowerPoint presentation, Care Entrée and Medi-Share websites.

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