In the past year, both have made tremendous efforts to educate themselves regarding every aspect of health care; they have been open-minded and willing to listen to all sides.
Real solutions to problems are never easy, while political solutions appear much easier. The talk regarding health-care reform has been dominated by the phrase "making health insurance affordable." But painting the front door cannot be called a house remodel.
Insurance costs are mostly a reflection of the cost of health-care delivery and utilization. Making health insurance affordable - forcing carriers to offer so-called "affordable plans" - will not result in affordable health care. We must deal with what's behind the door - the cost of health-care delivery - for true reform to occur.
For that, our priority must be to restore the health-care provider/patient relationship by providing the patient with cost and performance information and making him responsible for his own care. The government does not tell its citizens what house, car or flat screen to buy, but there is an assumption that when it comes to choosing a health-care service, we are incapable of intelligent decision-making and need intermediaries.
Only when the patient is armed with relevant information regarding cost and a provider's performance will that patient be able to make informed decisions. Armed with such information, a patient will shop quality and price, which will drive down costs.
For example, an insurance company might give the patient a benefit credit equivalent to the average price of a knee replacement surgery and the patient would shop around with the information given. Based on this data, he might choose a surgeon with a long record of solid outcomes and a lower price than the benefit credit his insurance has given him.
The insurance company could allow him to keep the change in his Health Savings Account for future health-care needs. This practice is already happening on a small scale in several areas where a hospital lists a global price for a heart bypass and gives a 90-day warranty. No extra charges for pain medication, Band Aids or physical therapy - all are included.
Any chronic disease can be treated this way and it's already done with diabetes: one all-inclusive fee per year. The patient doesn't put off visits because of cost. Receiving needed care, her health improves. As her health improves, the insurance costs go down.
Regarding affordability, some in our society will never be able to provide for themselves and their families, and to them, health care often seems a luxury. We are a compassionate society; we encourage our legislators to facilitate for those citizens the use of all available government services and to be creative in implementing new ones.
Health-care costs are a runaway train. We must slow down the train - health-care delivery costs - to enable more individuals to get on board. Some will never be able to get on board without a helping hand; we must extend that hand to those in need.
The Utah Association of Health Underwriters counts as members hundreds of agents whose job it is to help employers provide health plans for their employees; they constantly strive to keep costs down.
Our association applauds the debate that has begun and desires to be part of the solution.
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* MARTINE SMITH is the executive director of the Utah Association of Health Underwriters.
