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Businesses
are providing the leadership in reforming health care.
In just the last year, the number of large firms offering
or planning to offer health savings accounts (HSAs) to their
workers nearly doubled, from 14 to 26 percent, says the Wall
Street Journal's Holman Jenkins Jr.
HSAs allow
insurance to get back to its classic role of paying for "catastrophic"
medical bills while consumers save tax-free to cover routine
medical costs and small emergencies. The idea is not
to "shift costs" from employers to employees --
employees would be kidding themselves to believe they don't
pay for their own health care however the bill is served up.
But it does introduce an incentive to spend health dollars
more wisely.
Other
changes:
- A dozen
states have woken up and begun backing down from mandates
that specified in detail what treatments and procedures
insurance must cover, driving the cost of available policies
out of sight. One of them, Washington State, is home
to LifeWise Health Plans, which signed up 12,000 individuals
in the first quarter for plans combining HSAs with high-deductible
insurance, nearly 60 percent of whom had previously been
without health insurance.
- Nationally,
a million customers have now signed up for similar plans
-- a doubling in six months.
- A bipartisan
duo in the House has introduced a bill to require hospitals
to publish their prices, following similar steps in several
states.
- These
are early moves -- very early -- in the right direction,
towards a day when spending on health care is moderated
by price-sensitive shoppers weighing benefits against costs,
says Jenkins.
Until
health care reformers find the courage to tackle the tax code,
business will have to continue to provide default leadership
in coping with the central malady of our health care economy,
says Jenkins.
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