Senator Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid this weekend talking about the issue she knows best–healthcare reform. While the plan she proposed as First Lady went down in flames through a combination of poor political management and intense interest group opposition, the problems she tried to tackle not only remain but have gotten worse, with tens of millions uninsured and the cost of care continuing to skyrocket. The big question I have is whether the horrible outcomes critics attributed to Hillary's proposal haven't come to pass anyway, and what alternative do we have?
For example, one of the big problems identified by opponents in the health insurance industry was the suggestion that under Hillary's program, people would no longer be able to choose their own doctor–that some faceless government bureaucracy would tell you where you had to go for medical care.
How is that different than what we have now under managed care? I know that under my own company's plan, while I retain the “choice” of doctors, if I happen to choose some provider outside of my plan's network, I get no reimbursement at all. Other plans offer similar “choices,” but force the patient to pay a much higher deductible and co-payment if they stray outside the approved list of doctors.
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