"I've seen some pretty dreadful things done for the sake of profit."
Free markets doesn't imply a lack of legal constraints on commercial behavior. Like fences and neighbors, good laws make good markets.
"I would like to see a return to fee for service. I do not like it that my personal health care is tied to my employment through company-issued health insurance but, as is the case with most, this choice has been removed."
You've hit on one key source of problems with our health care system, IMO. There is an economic disconnect between the consumer of health care and the supplier of it, created by our tendency to, IMO, over-insure. Current insurance schemes look more like a prepayment for services, but with decisions about actual delivery of, or payment for, services being handed over to a third party rife with conflicts of interest.
The problem is not with the economic interests of consumers or producers - those interests naturally balance each other in a free, competitive market - but rather with the economic interests of insurers, which conflict with both. Furthermore, since most people get their health insurance through their employer, not directly, natural market discipline is lacking in the insurance market as well.
Interesting topic, eh? For us economic geeks, anyway. ;-) |
