The AHCA Gets It Wrong: Health Care Is Different

Congressman Ryan has now produced his fundamental health care reformation to support a “consumer-directed” vision in which services would be bought and sold like other goods and service in the economy. Indeed, responding to the Congressional Budget Office’s assessment that 24 million Americans would lose their health insurance if the House legislation becomes enacted, Ryan was rather nonchalant about that outcome, reasserting the conservative vision that, “People are going to do what they want to do with their lives because we believe in individual freedom in this country,” just as they do across all sectors of the economy. In many ways, the House’s American Health Care Act’s reliance on consumers to fend for themselves in buying health care services represents a fundamental rejection of the prevailing policy viewpoint, brilliantly formulated by Nobel laureate, economist Kenneth Arrow, in his 1963 article, “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care.” Coincidentally, Arrow died on February 21, as the Republican proposal was taking shape. In a recent Health Affairs Blog post, Victor Fuchs paid tribute to Arrow’s seminal work. As testament to its impact, in 2002, the Journal of Health Policy Politics and Law devoted an entire issue to reprinting the paper along with 22 essays by a “who’s who” of health policy experts across a broad ideological spectrum, each one reviewing a particular aspect of the 33-page paper — it was that packed wi...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Quality ACA repeal and replace American Health Care Act Source Type: blogs