Public health care and health insurance reform--varied preferences, varied options.

摘要

Health care and health insurance reform will surely require a mixture of public and private efforts for different population groups in different settings. One feature that might help with the choices Americans make as consumers, voters, and taxpayers is a menu of insurance plans managed by both public and private organizations for all population groups. People will end up with insurance they like better and that works better for them if they can select a plan from a large variety of options. Such an arrangement caters to the variability of consumers' preferences about insurance: how they want their insurer to limit or expand their choices of services, what level of financial protection they want, and how they want to interact with their insurance plan. Even now, some consumers select aggressive health maintenance organizations, others prefer mild preferred-provider organizations, while still others like high-deductible plans.