As Maria Cantwell and the Senate Finance Committee talk up the coop compromise as a politically-doable health care reform strategy (as opposed to the public option, which they say doesn't have the votes), Seattle's Group Health Cooperative is getting a lot of attention.

On KUOW last week, Cantwell used the local coop to make the case for national coops:

I think Group Health has done well in the Pacific Northwest. I think it’s done well in the state of Washington and into Idaho… It’s a tested system and it’s done well.

What say you, Slog mob? Our very own Group Health as a model for the nation? If any of you out there are Group Health members, and have something to say about the coop's new poster-child status in the national health care reform debate, please e-mail me today. I'd love to hear your stories and perhaps use them in a piece I'm working on for the next dead-tree edition.