Authors: Greg McKee, North Dakota State University, gregory.mckee@ndsu.edu, and Donald Frederick, National Society of Accountants for Cooperatives (retired from USDA Rural Development).
America has about 1 million units of cooperative housing, nearly 600,000 of them in New York City. New units are being developed in many other areas including senior citizen communities, trailer parks, low-income complexes and student housing near college campuses.
Millions of Americans receive basic medical care through cooperatively organized health care providers. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) serve more than 1 million people coast-to-coast and will likely be an increasingly important part of the health care system in the years ahead. In several major cities--Seattle, Minneapolis, Memphis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Detroit--companies have formed cooperative health alliances to purchase health care for their employees.
Child care cooperatives are meeting the needs of families where the parents are employed and want affordable, supportive care for their young children while working. These centers can be organized by parents on their own, by a single employer or by a consortium of businesses providing a single center for the group. More than 50,000 families use cooperative day care centers daily.
