Rejecting critics and community concern, voting members of Seattle’s Group Health Cooperative have overwhelmingly agreed to join with the California health-care giant Kaiser Permanente.
Voting 8,824 to 1,586 in mailed-in ballots, the members approved the move that essentially dissolves the iconic, home-grown cooperative, founded nearly 70 years ago with the mission of providing integrated health care and health coverage to Northwest residents.
The results of the vote were announced Saturday at a meeting at Seattle’s Smith Cove Cruise Terminal that was attended by about 300 co-op members out of an expected 1,000.
The vote was a required next step in the acquisition, which will make Group Health’s 600,000 patients part of Kaiser Permanente’s 10.3 million customers in eight states and Washington, D.C.
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