The Citizen’s Health Care Working Group’s interim report provides a number of ideas on how to initiate a more rational health care system in the U.S.
Medicynic’s last post Phixing Pharmaceutical Costs noted that our so called free market system doesn’t assure access, can’t control costs and results in economic rationing. On the other hand successful national heath care programs (see this) assure access by sitting “down at the bargaining table with the government and representatives from professional associations of doctors and healthcare professionals to set exact fee structures. They negotiate strict cost controls that have prevented expenditures paid by consumers from approaching anywhere near exorbitant U.S. levels. Cost controls are essential to the success of these “shared responsibility†systems.” These negotiations extend to suppliers and pharmaceutical companies as well.
Medicynic 