Abstract:The article informs that necessity has been called the mother of cooperatives. The need for more doctors and more hospital beds has led rural groups in some areas to turn the cooperative method to a new purpose. Available records show that 20 rural cooperative health associations out of approximately 100 organized have succeeded in providing and maintaining centers through which their members obtain prepaid medical care. About an equal number are building health service centers or raising funds. Health cooperatives, of course, are not a complete answer to rural deficiencies of doctors and hospital beds. Nearly a third of the associations organized have disbanded or become inactive. They have been discouraged by high building costs, difficulties of obtaining doctors, medical opposition, skepticism about the cooperative's possibilities, lack of intergroup and intercommunity cooperation, misunderstanding or lack of appreciation of the prepayment plan, and other factors. In some states restrictive laws make it impossible to organize a health cooperative.

　　Subjects: fundraising; health and welfare funds; rural health; medical care costs; medical assistance; public health

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