Burr: Co-op health care model could work

ASHEVILLE (Asheville Citizen-Times) — A medical insurance model championed by Mission Hospital and getting increasing national attention should get serious consideration as a solution to the health care reform fight, Sen. Richard Burr said Wednesday.

A Republican and the state's senior senator, Burr spoke about health care — including a cooperative health care model — following a morning speech at the N.C. Veterans Affairs Summer Conference at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel.

Burr has pushed for changes that would tax high-value health benefits and use that money to give every person a $2,300 up-front tax credit they can use to purchase insurance. He is “vehemently opposed,” he said, to providing a public option, in which a government insurance program competes with private insurance providers.