Patient Ownership

Health care is a worry for most everyone--but when people think about it, who really wants some bureaucrat making a life and death decision for you or a loved one? What if you went to the grocery store and some gatekeeper checked their record on you and told you what foods you could buy, and how much of it? Or maybe you just got some kind of ration card. Doesn't this sound grim? (Maybe this isn't the best analogy, but we already know the food nazis are on the march.) Dr. Tom Price in the WSJ:

For a preview, look no further than "What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis," a book published this year by former Sen. Tom Daschle, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for secretary of Health and Human Services. Atop the list of worrisome ideas proposed by Mr. Daschle is the creation of an innocently termed "Federal Health Advisory Board."

This board would offer recommendations to private insurers and create a single standard of care for all public programs, including which procedures doctors may perform, which drugs patients may take, and how many diagnostic machines hospitals really need. As with Medicare, for any care provided outside the board's guidelines, patients and physicians would not be reimbursed.

One size fits all healthcare--or not. What to do as an alternative?

First, we must fundamentally reform the tax code so that it makes sense for all people to have health insurance. This may be readily accomplished through the adoption of tax equity for the purchase of insurance, active pooling mechanisms for increased purchasing power, and focused use of tax deductions and credits. Through positive changes in the tax code we can make health-care cost effective and create incentives so there is no reason to be uninsured. This way, care is purchased without government interference between you and your doctor.

Secondly, we must transform our health-care model to one that is owned and controlled by patients. Currently, most Americans receive coverage through a third party, leaving health-care decisions to an employer or the government. By creating a new system in which Americans are provided the opportunity to purchase whichever health-coverage product fits their personal needs, insurers would be forced to focus on patients. Not until patients truly own their own health plans will we see the accountability and flexibility needed to ensure quality care and necessary cost-lowering efficiencies.

Michael Gerson, WaPo addresses this as well, more philosophically.

P.S. Government checks waistlines in Japan. Via HotAir.