title: Containing health costs in a consumer-based model.
abstract: The assumption that consumer choice cannot be used to achieve cost control in health care is invalid. It does not do so today because the tax treatment of health care leads to perverse consumer incentives that encourage cost escalation. By reforming the tax treatment of insurance and out-of-pocket medical costs, it is possible to design an efficient and universal system in which consumer choice is a powerful restraint on cost.
authors: Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC.
authors: S M
authors: SM
authors: Butler
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation / Q000191:economics*; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods*; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics*; D017059:Models, Econometric; D013660:Taxes / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States