Do we need an AMUL in healthcare?

Do we need an AMUL in healthcare?

AMUL is very good at what it does. It is admired by stakeholders at both ends - farmers and consumers. Will a cooperative movement work in healthcare? Cooperative healthcare systems already exist. In India, Kerala has many of them. In the US, HealthPartners serves a chunk of the country in the Northwest.

A healthcare consumer Co-Op can help combine demand volume to extract lower prices and higher quality from providers. If I were a Co-Op with ten million members, any hospital or insurance company would be happy to provide me with the service my members need on equitable terms. Indeed, I as a Co-Op may be able to offer healthcare insurance and primary healthcare under my Co-Op brand (like HealthPartners in the US), thus ensuring that secondary and tertiary care providers are guard-railed to provide the quality and convenience my members demand.

AMUL has trail blazed this concept and shown that it can deliver benefits across the spectrum, from farmer to consumer. Why not in healthcare?

See this from JAMA for additional context: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830208?guestAccessKey=2f6f8938-706a-4c77-abd9-3987579f215a&utm_source=silverchair&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=article_alert-jama&utm_content=olf&utm_term=021225&adv=000002202806