Monday, July 30, 2007

Single payer system seen as a giant HMO

Kevin M.D. had an interesting take on national health care plans after reading this report revealing the regulatory nightmares and access restrictions of Britain’s NHS.

It’s ironic that the proponents of a national health care system in the U.S. try to bolster their arguments by citing the evils of managed care, that monster we all love to hate. But national health care, in whatever form it may ultimately arrive here will, likely as not, be a system of heavy managed care under multiple layers of intrusive government bureaucracy---everything we hate about managed care and much more.

Don’t forget that Hillary Care was, in large part, modeled after an elaborate managed care scheme proposed by the Jackson Hole Medical Group. Managed care organizations were influenced in the 1990s by the Jackson Hole model. Although Hillary Care died in 1994, its anticipation in the early 90s may have spurred the subsequent wave of managed care in the U.S.

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