DALLAS, TX: The disastrous rollout of the Affordable Care Act, in which countless people are involved in managing care and controlling costs except the doctor and patient, demonstrates the need for a market-based alternative that empowers patients to make their own health care decisions.
In "Ten Principles of a Market-Oriented Health Care System," Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) resident scholar Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. offers the key components to increase access, lower costs and improve quality of care.
“The two biggest problems in U.S. health care are the convoluted economic incentives in which patients don’t seek value for their health care dollars, and the tax treatment of health care, which has created an employer-based health insurance system. Workers don’t get to choose their policy and then lose it when changing jobs,” said Matthews.
“Health insurance was never more expensive than when the government tried to make it ‘affordable,’” said Matthews. “Obamacare only doubled down on the current perverse economic incentives by expanding Medicaid and insulating more people from more expenses.”
The solution is to move to a market-based alternative that embraces the following principles, says Matthews:
1. Establish tax fairness;
2. Expand consumer-driven options, such as HSAs;
3. Cap the tax deduction for health insurance;
4. Provide help for low-income families;
5. Create a safety net for the uninsurables;
6. Privatize Medicare;
7. Give vets and Medicaid recipients vouchers;
8. Allow cross-state health insurance purchases;
9. Promote malpractice reform; and
10. Shrink the Department of Health and Human Services.
Patients can and will make good choices when the right economic incentives are in place, says Matthews. By embracing a consumer-driven health care alternative, the U.S. will begin the process of creating a patient-centered system.
The Institute for Policy innovation (IPI) is an independent, nonprofit public policy organization based in Dallas, Texas. Copies of “Ten Principles of a Market-Oriented Health Care System” are available at www.IPI.org. IPI resident scholar Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. is available for interview by contacting Erin Humiston at (972) 874-5139, or erin@ipi.org.
February 3, 2014