Whats wrong with the consumers rights approach, just making information on health plans public and letting workers choose what kind of coverage they prefer?
The consumerist version of the “free market” approach to health coverage is a thinly veiled fraud. It is impossible for workers to evaluate the critical details of competing health plans for the great variety of possible illnesses and their many possible treatments. Furthermore, the vast majority of consumers are basically healthy and have little direct knowledge with the critical health care services until they or a family member become critically ill. Even among the elderly 10% of these Americans use more than 65% of the health care resources.1 For more on preventive medicine (see prior question). Furthermore, the insurance industry spends hundreds of millions dollars yearly trying to attract in healthier patients to their own policies. This is a misuse of health care dollars and concentrates the most attention where it is the least needed in society. Most workers shift health plans because they are forced to do so, not because they even think they have found a plan that might better
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