I will try to answer all three questions.
The co-operative model is interesting because the members decide on the type of services they want to offer. Most of the time, it is a physical site, generally understood to be a clinic with a doctor. Other times, it might be a mobile clinic. It could also be telehealth or a clinic that travels within the community. Therefore, the members will determine their needs during their annual general meeting or after speaking with their board of directors, and they will decide whether the service provided will be a telehealth service or whether the town clinic will be kept. It really depends on the community's needs.
In general, as we mentioned in the presentation, it will be a real physical clinic. Basically, if we want there to be a doctor in the community when there isn't one or if we are losing doctors, the community creates a co-op. It is important to understand that the co-op will be a vehicle.
To answer your second question, I would say that the member contributions will be used to fund the vehicle, meaning the building, the additional equipment, additional nurses, additional prevention or other services. The advantage for members is to ensure that these services are available in the community and that people have access, perhaps at a lower cost, to services that are not covered by the government.
Obviously, people always want to know why they would pay an average annual contribution of $60 when members do not have privileged access to doctors over non-members. It is important to point out that annual contributions are not always required. In fact, most of the time, it is really an investment for the community. This sometimes also involves adding services that are not otherwise available. Prevention services under the Japanese model are a good example. We see this often. So additional prevention services not covered by the government are created. In this case, it might be available only to members. But for government paid services, members do not have an advantage over non-members.
To answer your third question about demographics, it is interesting to note that the demographics of members of health care co-ops are similar to that of the general population. You might think that older people need medical services the most and that they would more often be members, but the opposite is true. We have members who are in their twenties and thirties, for example. We have all kinds of members.