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from:

Health Care in the 21st Century

Wiley Long

Consumer-driven health care has the potential to be a

powerful force of change in the health care system. By

instituting competitive pressures, encouraging greater price

transparency, and rewarding consumers who are proactive about

their health, the growing adoption of
href=http://www.health--savings--accounts.com>Health Savings

Accounts will help make health care more affordable for

everyone.

In an article entitled "Health Care in the 21st Century",

published in the New England Journal of Medicine on January 20,

2005, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., made several

suggestions on ways to provide all Americans with lifelong,

affordable access to high-quality health care. Senator Frist

graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1978, and was a surgeon

before entering politics. One of the key aspects of his vision

is a system that is responsive primarily to individual

consumers, rather than to third-party payers. This concept is

known as consumer-driven health care.

Today most health care is paid for and controlled by third

parties such as the government, insurers, and employers.

Consumers rarely compare prices or quality of service when

shopping for health care - partly because this comparison is

usually very difficult or even impossible, and partly because

the price often just doesn't matter to the consumer, who is only

responsible for a moderate co-payment. Frist notes "a

consumer-driven system will empower all people - if they so

choose - to make decisions that will directly affect the most

fundamental and intimate aspects of their life - their own

health. This empowerment gives people a greater stake in and

more responsibility for, their own health care. Health care will

not improve in a sustained and substantial way until consumers

drive it."

A key aspect to enabling consumer-driven health care was the

creation of tax-free Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). This

legislation was part of the Medicare Modernization Act (Public

Law 108-173). "HSAs, coupled with affordable high deductible

insurance policies, give individual consumers more control over

their health care choices and hard earned dollars. HSAs give

people a greater stake in their own health care. The accounts

can move with employees from job to job and can be rolled over

year to year. HSAs should increase demand for greater

information and transparency."

What Senator Frist is suggesting is that people with

href=http://www.health--savings--accounts.com>high deductible

health insurance plans and HSAs have incentive to keep their

health costs low, since any money they save on health care

expenses stays in their Health Savings Account, and grows

tax-deferred, like an IRA. Thus there is also incentive for the

consumer to demand information about health care pricing. No

system has yet been devised in the history of mankind that does

more to increase quality and lower prices than a competitive

market system. As more and more consumers begin to own health

savings accounts, health care providers will be forced to

compete for their business by providing better quality service

and better prices.

The other factor in play is the financial motivation the

individual will have to stay healthy. The vast majority of

health care spending today is due to degenerative diseases such

as high blood pressure, diabetes, metabolic syndrome,

cardiovascular disease, and other modern ailments that are

primarily the result of lifestyle choices. The consumer who

wisely spends his HSA dollars on preventative care (which can be

done tax-free) and pays attention to diet and exercise could be

rewarded with a substantial amount of money in their Health

Savings Account by age 65.

Consumer-driven health care has the potential to be a powerful

force of change in the health care system. By instituting

competitive pressures, encouraging greater price transparency,

and rewarding consumers who are proactive about their health,

the growing adoption of Health Savings Accounts will help make

health care more affordable for everyone.

About the author:

None

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