UnitedHealth CEO: ObamaCare Exchanges Must be Sustainable on Their Own
Targeted News Service |
Following conversations both public and private with
While declining to issue a blanket pledge against bailout participation,
Ridenour also asked
A complete transcript of the public exchange between Ridenour and Mr. Hemsley is here; an audio recording of the exchange is here.
A true free-market health care system is one in which decisions about care are left to patients and health-care providers and patients controls the resources to pay for care. This is the type of health care system that would be truly beneficial for patients by driving down the costs of health care while also improving quality.
In the U.S. health care system, we rely far too much on third-party payers to pay our health care bills, be they private insurers or government programs such as
Such a health care system would involve both tax credits and large Health Savings Accounts that individuals will control and use to pay for both health insurance and health care. It will also involve insurance designs such as reference pricing for large health care expenditures. Reference pricing gives patients a set amount for a certain procedure. If the patients gets the procedure done at a price less than or equal to the reference price, he pays nothing. If he gets it done for more than the reference price, he pays the difference.
These and many other innovations will be necessary to turn our health care system into one that is directly responsive to patients. To get there, we need policy changes that put patients back in charge of health care resources and permit providers to innovate, to find new, more effective ways to bring care to patients.
The National Center in recent weeks has quizzed the CEOs of Wellpoint,
More information about the National Center's health care programs is here; about our participation in shareholder meetings, here.
The National Center has participated in 42 shareholder meetings so far in 2014.
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