HealthCare System

Just below the surface of the debate over the health care crisis, solutions are evolving daily. Buyers and providers are recognizing that the health care system will not be reformed anytime soon, so they are forming partnerships to solve what problems they can. These partnerships are addressing the three biggest issues in our health system: cost, quality, and access. They are providing innovative solutions to a wide variety of ills(Schoen et al 89).

Solutions are more likely to be found when all the relevant parts of a problem are taken into account. In recent health reform, cost has been almost the sole focus. Quality and choice have been largely ignored. Successful reform must consider all three, and also maximize access to quality primary and specialty care.

Carrots make better incentives than sticks. Managed care creates a paternalistic system which, in practice, rations care away from those least able to defend their interests towards those most adept at working the system. The much-touted "Health Consumer's Bill of Rights" accepts the legitimacy of top-down rationing, and merely provides a structure within which those denied care are allowed to ventilate their frustration. If they live long enough to do so(Gerard Hussey Frogner Waters 903-914).

The chief problem with managed care is that the locus of control is the insurance company; doctors and patients must settle for whatever crumbs fall from the insurance company's table. To bring this into line with our campaign theme, the insurance company is currently the center of the medical "wheel" - put there by the government. In effect, this means that the government, through its insurance surrogates, is able to determine what care families will receive.

We believe families - health care consumers - should be in the center of the medical "wheel," able to choose their doctor and have a say in ...