The NYT Is Right, Real Choice Should Be Central Goal Of Health Reform

Conn Carroll / August 26, 2009

David Leonhardt reports in today’s New York Times:

You might think, then, that a central goal of health reform would be to offer people more choice. But it isn’t.

Real choice is not part of the bills moving through the Democratic-led Congress; even if the much-debated government-run insurance plan was created, it would not be available to most people who already have coverage. Republicans, meanwhile, have shown no interest in making insurance choice part of a compromise they could accept. Both parties are protecting the insurers.

This is only half right. It is true that the versions of health reform already marked up by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate would decrease, not increase, Americans’ health care choices. But it is 100% untrue that conservatives have not proposed health care alternatives that would increase consumer choice. In fact, virtually all of the conservative health plans on Congress are centered on the insight that increased consumer choice is the key to higher health care quality and lower health care costs: (more…)