Quote
...
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said Mr. Baucus’s proposal to establish nonprofit insurance cooperatives was no more acceptable to him than the idea of a new government-run insurance program.
“You can call it the government option,” Mr. McCain said. “You can call it a co-op. You can call it a banana. But the fact is, it is government intervention into the free marketplace, which will lead to crowding out, which over time will lead to government control of health care in America.”
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, criticized the co-ops from the other side of the political spectrum. Mr. Rockefeller said insurance co-ops had “a checkered history” and would not provide effective competition to private insurance companies.
The idea of co-ops is “ill-defined and unexplained,” Mr. Rockefeller said. “They may work for farms and electricity, but they won’t work for health insurance.”
...