Rep. Stark says that the co-ops, favored by Blue Cross Dogs, and Senate "moderates" are nothing more than a scam and a shoddy substitute for the public option in health care reform. Here’s what he said to the Huffington Post below:

"There aren’t many of you listening who remember the co-ops in the ’30s, which was kind of a Roosevelt outfit, rural electric co-ops, phone co-ops," Stark said. "But, as I say, there is no real example of either the regulation, or how you would establish them, or where they would get enough people to have a purchasing base. So you might as well talk about unicorns. You know, what is a medical unicorn? My kids all know what a unicorn is. But you don’t. You have never seen one. So I think this co-op is just a way of ducking the issue of having the public plan."

Rep. Stark’s right on this one. The whole co-op issue is a way to mandate a bailout of the private insurance industry without real competition to help keep premium prices affordable. Basically, without the public option, there will be no cost controls on your monthly premiums, so it’ll be the RomneyCare plan in short–a great bonanza for private insurers with 47 new million captive customers. Rep. Stark also whacks the Senate Six for obstructing real health care reform:

 Later in the call, Stark took a whack at Conrad and others who are backing the co-op proposal, noting that the idea was coming from a few senators with "less than three percent of the rural constituency."

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His colleague, Rep. Xavier Becerra, (D-Calif), who is vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, concurred.

"Co-ops have been tried in the past, in the ’40s. And they eventually have failed," he said. "We have not seen any success to date… to lead us to believe that co-ops can succeed. And those that still survive look more like private insurance companies than co-ops."

And Rep. Becerra’s also right on that one. Did you know that under the proposed Senate Finance Bill that Blue Cross Blue Shield, a so-called "non-profit" private insurer, could become a regional co-operative? That way they get a nice big chunk of the start-up money being proposed for co-operatives, and the subsidies to them as well. It’s nothing more than a sweet bailout for them mandated on our backs.  

It’s utterly ridiculous, and the whole co-op proposal is nothing more than a Ponzi scam being sold to us Americans by the Senate Six and Blue Dog Democrats.