The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 8)

p> MSA'S IN THE USA br> Re: Lawrence Henry's The Health Care Conundrum : /p>

Regarding "The Health Care Conundrum," there is a place for insurance: to cover catastrophic illnesses/events. The real alternative to a nationalized system to ration health care is a mix of medical savings accounts (MSAs) and major medical insurance.

Instead of paying insurance companies or managed care outfits to act as a broker between consumers and health care providers, employers (or individuals) should fund accounts that could be used for pay-as-you-go, fee-for-service treatment. Under the current system, those with employer-provided insurance or HMOs look at what they can get out of the entitlement and don't care about costs; they regard the care as free because it's already paid for.

Looking at a system of MSAs, we could figure out a reasonable way to fund partially such accounts and major medical for the poor and unemployed, making sure that the rate is low so that there are no incentives to remain poor or unemployed.

At the major medical level, insurance companies and regulators could engineer a book that makes sense for regular folks as well as those suffering life-long debilitating diseases or illnesses that are genetic in origin.

p>One overlooked reason for skyrocketing medical costs is that people are buying more health care. More folks are getting more diagnostic and corrective procedures -- colonoscopies, body scans, laser eye surgeries, knee/elbow tune-ups, replacement hips -- whether traditional insurance covers them or not. Heck, I know one large family where the successful siblings decided to chip in and get their dad a new set of knees -- he was a retired bricklayer who was getting along okay, but the kids wanted to do something special to improve his quality of life. I'm waiting for the radio ad for the combo body scan / laser eye surgery / colonoscopy while you're waiting for your car repair. br> -- Mike Cakora br> Columbia, SC /p>

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