Maggie Mahar: “Runaway Health Care Inflation Is The Elephant In The Middle Of The Room”
With a significant minority of Americans forgoing needed medical treatment because of cost concerns, health inflation may become a more significant issue for Americans than the uninsured. Maggie Mahar, a noted progressive writer, discusses the merits of a health reform plan that would sharply reign in costs and give consumers responsibility for spending their own health care dollars.
published earlier this week Wall Street Journal “an increasing array of Americans, many with health insurance, are delaying or forgoing medical care because of concern about cost.” According to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change, 20% of survey respondents said they had put off “needed medical treatment” at some point during 2007.
While in some cases decreasing medical utilization is a good thing, it’s not clear that putting off an appointment to see a physician when you slice off half your thumb in a backyard accident is a sound decision.
This is why I was very interested to see an article
published on The Health Care Blog by Maggie Mahar, a fellow at the Century Foundation focusing on the “elephant in the room”: ever-increasing healthcare costs. She notes that many progressives don’t want to discuss rising health inflation because it would provide “ammunition to the conservatives.” Mahar rightly poo-poos this idea because it stands in the way of seeing some serious reform aimed at reducing our nation’s health bill. She also notes that rising costs is a much more volatile issue than
the plight of the uninsured for many Americans.
Interestingly, she cites a reform proposal by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, which aims at reducing costs significantly. While the plan is not sexy it focuses on the core issue we face, rising costs that are sinking our ability to effectively apply increasingly limited financial resources. Mahar summarizes how Emanuel’s plan would reduce costs in three areas:
-Increases integration of health products and services
-Focuses on providing an unbiased assessment of the safety and efficacy of drugs, devices and medical procedures
-Introduces a consumption tax, which would set a global ceiling for the nation’s health budget
Interestingly, Emanuel’s plan would put consumers in the driver's seat because they would be required to spend their own money (rather than employers handling it for them) by using a government voucher to pick and choose services. This would make consumers much more aware of the cost and quality and more active stewards of their own care.
Emanuel’s proposal is very interesting and is being hotly debated online. What’s your take on it? Is this a good way to reduce costs while getting consumers to become more active stewards of their own care?
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