Common Sense as Health Policy
June 14, 2024
America is thought to have a market economy. Yet it is striking to consider all of the ways our health-care system prevents the market from solving our health-care problems.
Since most of the restrictions were created by Democratic legislation, it is tempting to view the liberation of health care as a Republican project. But there is no reason that it couldn’t be bipartisan. Here are several principles to guide reform.
Free the patient. About the only success Obamacare can claim has been an increase in the number of people with health insurance. But in contrast with the original promises, almost all the increase in insurance has been in Medicaid.
What’s wrong with that?
Many doctors won’t take Medicaid patients because Medicaid payments are so low and because Medicaid rejects more claims than either Medicare or commercial insurance. Many of our top medical centers won’t take them, either. If they do take Medicaid patients, those patients are usually the last ones providers want to see.
