Friday, January 16, 2009

The Swiss way to Health Care

I still can't get this health care topic off my mind... I've been reading about the Swiss health care system and it sounds very interesting. I won't go into a ton of details because you can more read about it here, among other places. I don't particularly care for their price fixing/negotiating but it is a place to start. Their employers don't pay for insurance but the individuals do. The Swiss are required by law to carry insurance, but they shop around for different plans that compete for your business. This seems a step in the right direction, but not yet there all the way.

Author Regina Herzlinger addresses the health care issues in the U.S. in her book "Who Killed Health Care" and has some great ideas about overhauling our current system. I'm just a regular Joe (not a plumber), but Regina is a Harvard Business School professor and she understands that we need a consumer driven model. I'm ok with employers subsidizing the premiums, but not with limiting our choices. Would we be ok with our employer picking our houses for us? Of course not, so why are we ok with the choice of one health insurance plan that is typically offered?

Angie's List is a pretty interesting website because they allow you to read and post reviews of various service providers including doctors and hospitals. This is a great way to provide visibility into the quality of care (and even the cost) by hearing about people's real experiences with their care. Doctors who have poor bedside manners will either have to change or go out of business. This would be good! Angie's List just needs to catch on a bit more for this to be truly effective.

I'm still convinced that a consumer driven free market approach will provide the missing transparency to the costs of care along with healthy competition for our business. Let's not be content with a government run, centrally controlled, and price fixed nightmare. I'm afraid that this may be what our new congress and president will want to offer us this coming year. Ugh! There really is a better way.
 
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