Which way for competition? None of the above.
Despite growing documentation that the conditions needed to support competition in health care do not exist, consumer-directed health care has been offered as the new market-based solution to cost inflation. Yet typical consumer-based insurance products undermine the very logic of expecting consumers to make good health care decisions by making preventive services--the category of services about which consumers are best able to make informed decisions using their own money--exempt from cost sharing. Consumer-directed care threatens important societal values--in particular, the goal of establishing relationships between patients and clinical professionals based on trust.
Berenson
Robert A
RA
Urban Institute in Washington, DC, USA. rberenso@ui.urban.org
D003256:Community Participation; D003363:Cost Control; D004465:Economic Competition; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States