I came across an interesting article in today’s MSJ about the “Healthy Wisconsin” universal healthcare proposal that’s been included in the state budget by Senate Democrats. What’s interesting about the article is that it talks about how the proposal came into being, more specifically the fact that it’s modeled in large part on the ideas of Alain Enthoven, a retired retired professor at Stanford University who specializes in health care economics. Enthoven’s ideas focus on how to use market forces to lower costs and expand coverage. In other words, health care providers would compete to offer the most cost-effective, high-quality health care, and those providers that offered the highest quality and most cost-effective care would be rewarded with more patients. According to the article:
They (market forces) would require restructuring the health care system in a way that eliminates existing incentives that reward hospitals and doctors for providing more care as opposed to efficient care.
What a novel concept…rewarding health care providers for providing efficient care, as opposed to simply providing more care. The proposed plan would force health plans to compete on cost and quality, which in theory should cause doctors and hospitals to become more efficient, providing better care at lower costs.
What’s interesting to note is that Enthoven isn’t a fan of a single-payer universal health care system, stating, “The government often gets it wrong in setting prices.” As I understand it, the “Healthy Wisconsin” proposal wouldn’t be a single-payer system, but rather a system much like the current state employees health care plan. The current state employees health care plan allows employees the option of choosing their own health care provider from a list of approved providers who have met certain benchmarks for quality and efficiency of service. It’s a nice plan, and I appreciate being given the option of choosing the health care provider I feel is best suited to my needs and those of my family.
I know Republicans in the Assembly and Senate are frothing at the mouth in their opposition to the “Healthy Wisconsin” proposal, and while I can appreciate their concerns about higher taxes, this is a plan that makes sense, isn’t “socialized medicine” as some Republicans are so fond of labeling almost all universal health care proposals, and will ultimately benefit each and every resident of the state.
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