More On Beserk Health Care Spending

Regarding "Partnerships with providers are key to reining in costs" (Sunday Outlook Page B9), former Texas Medical Center President Richard Wainerdi suggests that the solution to the City of Houston's skyrocketing health care costs is to tweak the existing system to reward health care providers based on results, not volume of services rendered.  There are other structural changes that he proposes, but at the end, what is totally missing from his prescription is any aspect of a free enterprise system, or anything resembling control of the outcome on the part of the consumer.

 

To name but one example, Wainerdi recommends that information systems be improved to give health care providers better means to "manage the health of employees".  It sounds reasonable, but it is a continuation of the same paternalistic approach that has taken patients out of the decision-making loop for decades.  The fundamental problem here is that the City of Houston is looked on as the Customer, not the employee.  Until that changes, it's not likely anything is going to substantially improve.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress