If I Call It A Co-Op, They Can't Call Me a Commie Anymore, Right?

Wrong. They'll keep calling you that, because it's fun for them. But now they'll also go back to calling you a liberal, which is code for clearly having no plan whatsoever. Per The Times: 

The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit health care cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, originally favored by President Obama. But the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers.

You know what, though? I've become far too cynical. I actually think that health care reform is going to be amazing (when it happens) because we're finally going to see a cohesive network that utilizes an efficient, humane, cost-effective model to care for patients - because that was the whole point of this reform movement in the first pl - Oh, wait...

The history of health insurance in the United States is full of largely unsuccessful efforts to introduce new models of insurance that would lower costs. And the health insurance markets of many states suggest that any new entrant would face many difficulties in getting established.

Dammit. Health insurance and pharmaceutical companies, you may exhale.