Second Opinions: Consumer Choice

IN THE debate over health-care reform, a fundamental question has emerged: Who should drive health care? Should it be government? Or should it be consumers, empowered with more control over health-care choices and costs?

Everyone agrees the current system needs repair. We don’t have anything resembling a “free market” in health care, as some claim. With most consumers insulated from the financial considerations of health-care choices, doctors sometimes ordering needless tests to avoid expensive law suits, mountains of paperwork, and a thicket of regulations, there’s little incentive or ability to hold down costs.

DN

About the Author

Don Nickles

Featured Tags

IN THE debate over health-care reform, a fundamental question has emerged: Who should drive health care? Should it be government? Or should it be consumers, empowered with more control over health-care choices and costs?

Everyone agrees the current system needs repair. We don’t have anything resembling a “free market” in health care, as some claim. With most consumers insulated from the financial considerations of health-care choices, doctors sometimes ordering needless tests to avoid expensive law suits, mountains of paperwork, and a thicket of regulations, there’s little incentive or ability to hold down costs.