As this audience knows only too well, growing concerns about health care costs and poor access have stimulated the development of multiple health care reform proposals. Proposals from members of the House and Senate, medical specialty societies, public interest groups, and organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, to name a few sources, are piling up on the public policy table at a rapid clip.

It can work in Maryland, and I believe it offers a model for the nation as well, because unlike the other approaches, it achieves four critical health care reform goals:

  • First, it provides universal and continuous access for all to standard insurance benefits without regard to employment or health status;
  • Second, it moderates costs by using competition to pressure insurers and health care providers to operate efficiently, and to put more purchasing power in the hands of consumers;
  • Third, it is budget neutral and uses an equitable financing methodology; and
  • Fourth, it preserves what is good about our system -- a system that fosters competition and innovation, encourages the development of technology, and allows Americans to keep what they value so highly, the right to choose doctors they trust, without long waits for care.

All four goals must be achieved if we are to see true reform in this country. The piecemeal solutions of the past simply have not worked. In fact, they have exacerbated our problems.

It probably goes without saying, that one of the reasons that health care costs are consistently higher than the Consumer Price Index is that the end users of the health care services, consumers, and those who order health care services, health care providers, have been shielded from the economic consequences of their choices by insurance.

Read the full article by Carl Sardegma about the Maryland Health Plan on The Heritage Foundation