Monday, January 16, 2006
Consumer Driven Health Care
Consumer Choice: Can It Cure The Nation's Health-Care Ills?
Directly or indirectly, workers pay for their own health insurance. Benefits are simply one part of compensation, and higher insurance costs mean that wage increases will be lower. Shifting to a high deductible plan does not shift costs to employees as a group, but it does make those costs more apparent.
The $150 billion-plus tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance also comes largely from workers, who pay higher taxes or receive fewer government services than they otherwise would. Low-income people pay less, high-income people pay more -- but high-income people also enjoy a larger tax benefit.
If we ask employers or the government to pay more for middle-class insurance, that simply means lower wages or higher taxes for employees. That also means, as John Goodman indicates, that more of the decisions about one's health care will be made by someone else. That could result in less choice among health plans and more restrictions on what a person may spend his own money on -- surely a less desirable outcome.
Directly or indirectly, workers pay for their own health insurance. Benefits are simply one part of compensation, and higher insurance costs mean that wage increases will be lower. Shifting to a high deductible plan does not shift costs to employees as a group, but it does make those costs more apparent.
The $150 billion-plus tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance also comes largely from workers, who pay higher taxes or receive fewer government services than they otherwise would. Low-income people pay less, high-income people pay more -- but high-income people also enjoy a larger tax benefit.
If we ask employers or the government to pay more for middle-class insurance, that simply means lower wages or higher taxes for employees. That also means, as John Goodman indicates, that more of the decisions about one's health care will be made by someone else. That could result in less choice among health plans and more restrictions on what a person may spend his own money on -- surely a less desirable outcome.
