Health cooperatives, more necessary than ever

Around the world, the covid-19 pandemic is causing changes in the way things are done. Both the way of working and relating have been forced to change suddenly, which has led to new formulas for both work and social relationships, which in many cases have no turning back and are surely the new paradigm.

The drastic measures imposed to slow the advance of the pandemic, and its consequences on the economy, have forced companies in most economic sectors to evolve, even to innovate by force, to adapt to the new status quo.

Undoubtedly, the health sector is one of the sectors with the greatest impact and will require profound changes in order to ensure that by 2030 the health and well-being of all people and at all ages is guaranteed, as advocated by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

But apart from the Covid 19 pandemic, there are many challenges in the field of health. While the sustainability of national health systems is threatened by the increase in demand caused by an increasingly long-lived population, the governments of many countries are looking for ways to guarantee universal health coverage.

To face these challenges, an efficient implementation of healthcare is necessary, appropriately managing financial resources and healthcare spending. But above all, people are important. The coronavirus has targeted healthcare professionals. In many cities, the applause of the citizens has resounded every afternoon, thanking the dedication, dedication to service and good work of the toilets.

As healthcare is a labor intensive economic sector, doctors, nurses, healthcare technicians, clerks, ambulance drivers, caretakers, and all healthcare workers are key and can make a big difference.

Cooperative companies are an optimal mechanism for the provision of health services due to their ability to jointly pool the resources of different groups, while providing adequate conditions for health professionals to carry out their work.

And the fact is that health should not be a profit motive, nor should medical decisions be subordinated to the dividends paid by investments. Health cooperatives effectively combine the talent and professionalism of healthcare workers with the efficient management of economic resources, which allows them to correct market failures in the healthcare sector and meet the needs of both patients and professionals, providing services that in other circumstances would not be accessible.

Health cooperatives have provided a valuable service to their members, and to the communities in which they operate, for the past two centuries, and even in countries with established health systems, still play an essential role.

In these times of change and facing great challenges in the field of health, it is necessary to develop to the maximum the potential of health cooperatives and for this it is important to analyse and better understand their role and their advantages in meeting the needs of population health.

Recent studies confirm that numerous countries have seen the number of health cooperatives grow in recent decades. There is evidence that clearly relates its development to a reaction to the growing demand for health services and to the difficulties that governments are increasingly managing in healthcare spending.

Regardless of the characteristics of the health system where they operate, cooperatives manage to adapt to new situations, and reinvent themselves efficiently over time. Numerous examples support their ability to evolve, innovating their membership and governance structures, and the services they provide to better serve new needs.

Health cooperatives also help to overcome coordination failures that arise from the asymmetric information that typically characterizes health services. Furthermore, instead of competing with public health, health cooperatives tend to collaborate and complement it, and in many cases to supply it, releasing resources from public systems for the benefit of the entire community. In this sense, health cooperativism is a great strategic ally of the states that contributes greatly to the sustainability of health systems.

Furthermore, cooperatives are often close to the population and their needs. On many occasions they prioritize serving the demand of groups that would otherwise be excluded. During the covid-19 crisis, health cooperatives around the world have launched initiatives especially aimed at alleviating its effects on vulnerable population groups.

Possibly, the most relevant added value of health cooperatives is related to cooperative principles and values, since they are not only an economically viable business model that competes in the market like any other but are also socially responsible companies. They have a long-term perspective that allows them to advance in social and economic sustainability strategies.

As they are not obliged to pay investors, the surpluses that are generated each year are usually reinvested in technology, in improving the quality of care and treatment of the patient, in the training of professionals and in the improvement of their working conditions.

Health is a public good that is increasingly difficult to provide with individual responses, be they from the state, the private sector or civil society. Health is a social construction that requires solidarity, complementarity and collaboration to function, and cooperatives have shown for years that they are especially efficient in this context.