TAFP member appointed
to insurance CO-OP panel

TAFP member David D. Buck, M.D., M.P.H., of Houston has been appointed to a new national advisory board to oversee the disbursement of grants and loans to establish non-profit, member-run health insurers for the individual and small-group markets. Established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Government Accountability Office appointed 15 members to the advisory board of the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Program. Buck joins two other AAFP-member family physicians on the board.

Buck is an associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and the founder and president of Healthcare for the Homeless – Houston, Texas. He is also a member of the governing board of the Harris County Healthcare Alliance, which has partnered with other local organizations to launch the TexHealth Harris County 3-Share Plan, a program designed to make health benefits affordable for uninsured employees of small businesses.

The creation of a co-op system to bolster the individual and small-group insurance market was a compromise to the controversial public option insurance coverage originally proposed in the health care reform legislation. The advisory board will make recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services, awarding all of the grants and loans by July 2013. The board may continue its work until December 2015.