America’s job-based system of health-care coverage is under serious strain. The costs of employer-paid premiums are escalating dramatically. Workers are losing their coverage along with their jobs. Health-care services become more expensive year by year.
Consequently, alternative systems are being suggested and debated.
The Democrats don’t like the idea of people being “thrown out there to fend for themselves with a tax credit,” as an aide to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle puts it.
But to Republicans, this “empowers” the individual, and having consumers exercise responsibility for their own health care could go a long way toward controlling rampant health-care inflation.
Opponents fret that a wide array of choices would only confuse people. But Americans faced a similar wealth of choices after 401(k) pension plans were introduced. And, with few exceptions, say observers, they soon learned to make responsible choices and wise decisions.
Source: Tom Gray, Health Care Reform Debate: Again, It’s Government vs. Market, Investor’s Business Daily, March 19, 2002.
For more on Health Policy And The Uninsured http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea
FMF Policy Bulletin\26 March 2002
