Back on April 27, Senator Tom Coburn and Professor Regina Herzlinger published an op-ed (inexplicably) in the Huffington Post. Needless to day, it generated a firestorm of comments. I was just rereading it and saw this endorsement of "universal" health care, German-style, in the comments.
This woman has a €2,500 deductible and pays a monthly premium of €350, with no employer contribution. Sure, it's a plan decided by a cartel of health insurers and the government, but freedom to choose a plan other than one her employer chooses, and controlling the first €2,500 spent on ambulatory care costs looks a lot like "consumer-driven" health care. In fact, I'd bet that deductible is a lot bigger share of her real income than a similar one would be for Americans, because we earn so much more.
On the other hand, this poor woman would undoubtedly be classified as "underinsured" by the Commonwealth Fund. But let's keep that a secret: We wouldn't want her to learn that she's actually endorsing a system where patients, not government, control more of their health-care dollars.
[See M. Cannon & M. Tanner, Healthy Competition, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Cato Institute, p. 53) for a discussion of international comparisons of out-of-pocket spending.]
Research and commentary from a former senior executive in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
1 comment:
John,
It would be the Commonwealth Fund who might call her underinsured.
No biggie, though, the Washington Post said we endorsed Obama's plan (also meaning Commonwealth Fund).
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