Survey of health planning proposals

It is important that physicians participate in the debate and planning process that will ultimately guide how we reform the way health care is financed and delivered in the United States. Herein is offered a perspective on the problem, one which is not necessarily appreciated by health planners. While we deliver the best quality of care in the world to most of our population, our system has been severely criticized because we fail to provide for access to a substantial minority of our population. Additionally, the cost of the product is considerably greater than that in comparable countries. Attempts to control costs without diminishing quality have introduced expensive complexities into our system without any real success in cutting costs. Several proposals have been advanced to address the issues of cost and access. One of these is a single payer system, common in Europe and Canada, whereby a single agent or group of agents finances all health care through universal rules and means. A system operating in Hawaii is a simple employer mandate to provide health insurance. A uniquely American plan is the Jackson Hole Plan or Managed Competition (now called "Managed Cooperation"). This system is currently popular among national health planners, and involves a defined minimum managed health plan offered by various groups of providers to employees and individuals through health plan purchasing cooperatives. This plan is interesting, but has not been implemented in any jurisdiction, and it is not certain it would accomplish its goals in practice since it is difficult to predict behavior of all parties to such a system.