This doc has the right Rx

Anil gets several magazines that I trash without review. Medical Economics is not one of them. As a former slave to the medical workforce and wife of a practicing physician, I find this mag to be quite useful. This month’s News&Views has a very well written article on patient responsibility and healthcare.

My favorite part of the article has to be this:

At the heart of the debate lies a fundamental question: Is healthcare a right or a privilege? The Declaration of Independence refers to our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But, over time, Americans who’ve come to take for granted an expanding number of entitlement programs have added other “rights” to this list, including the right to healthcare.

The problem with that expectation is that, when everything is labeled a right, then the concept itself loses any meaning. It’s like the student who highlights the entire page of a book, thereby losing all distinction between what’s crucial and what’s incidental.

There’s another problem with calling healthcare a right. It imposes an obligation on the government to fulfill that right—something our government is neither economically nor functionally equipped to do. In contrast, the Bush administration reform plan would shift at least part of the healthcare burden from employers and government back to the consumer. By coupling a high-deductible policy with a tax-free health savings account, policy makers believe that Americans will become more efficient and discerning consumers of healthcare. Part and parcel of this cost-savings approach is price transparency, objective measures of quality, and tort reform.

I felt a warm sensation when I read that. (Where would be my business.) It seems that there are people who get it.

~ by Miche on December 19, 2006.