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Consumer Driven Healthcare: A 2 Hour Exchange Special (Part 1)
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 In the first half of our two hour special, we play an edited rebroadcast of a town hall style forum moderated by NHPR Executive Editor Jon Greenberg, held in Manchester July 19th. Jon and his panel discuss consumer driven health care- what it's all about, the pros, the cons and where it's going. Jon's guests are Michael Parkinson, Executive Vice President of Lumenos, Philip Boulter, former Medical Director, Tufts Health Plan, and Nancy Kane, Professor of Health Management, Harvard University's School of Public Health. Web resources:
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I was disappointed that more time was not spent on universal or single payer health insurance. I do not believe that consumers have enough medical knowledge to have a large impact on costs to the extent that you have reported it on your shows. A few references were made to the national system in Canada and other countries but then these were not explored further. Canada' system has high patient satisfaction, high quality, lower costs and they live as long if not longer than we do here in the US. There is nothing in our constitution or elsewhere that says health insurance has to be tied to employment and historically this has only been true since just after WWII.
High deductable policies sound good at first blush but will rarely work for workers who live pay check to paycheck or have chronic disease through no fault of their own. Yes, we all need to smoke less, eat better, exercise more and stop drinking to excess and health care cost would come down if we accomplished these goals. I have, however, rarely seen a patient make the decision to quit smoking soley on economic grounds such as a high deductible.
Your report was thoughtful and engaging but unfortunaley incomplete. I do hope you explore universal health insurance in a future series.