Healthcare: Which would you prefer?

[KMAN]

Providing the costs are similar...

1.) Pay more in taxes, and have the governement tell you where to go for healthcare.

2.) Get a tax rebate, and choose your own health care provider?

 

[AllieBaba]

Work and choose my own health care provider.
I don't want the government messing with my healthcare.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Providing the costs are similar...

1.) Pay more in taxes, and have the governement tell you where to go for healthcare.

2.) Get a tax rebate, and choose your own health care provider?

The major issue with the health care system is that the payer is decoupled from the consumer.

So, in most situations I'm covered by my employer's plan. I get sick. I go take care of myself at a health provider. I pay some relatively small amount that has little or no bearing on the amount of services I've consumed and go on my merry way. The rest of the tab is picked up by the Insurance company or my employer. What is my incentive to be an informed consumer? What is my incentive to act as I would in almost any other decision that has financial consequences in my life? NONE.

I recently got a valuable lesson in this when I switched employers. My new employer, a small business, has health issues and provides a VERY high cost health plan $1,000/mo to the employee to participate in a family plan. I figured I could do better. By getting a high-deductible plan with an Health Care Savings (HSA), I was able to pay a premium under half of what I was paying. Now my consumption, at least non-catastrophic, is paid by me. I now have an incentive to act as a rational consumer while still knowing that if something really bad happens, I'm covered by the insurance company. I get a tax break to help pay for it.

Based on the above paragraphs, I think the choose your own provider and get a tax break works best, but the recoupling of the consumer and the payer has to be done to bring prices back into line.