Jan VanRiper and her team at NASHCO, the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs, aren’t just trying to change health insurance, they want to reinvent it.
CO-OP stands not for cooperative, but for “consumer operated and oriented plan.” In other words, it’s an insurance plan for the people and by the people. There’s still not a lot of awareness about what CO-OPs are, says VanRiper, executive director and CEO of the newly formed coalition, which serves as the voice for these health insurance platforms created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
