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Jan Malcolm We should revisit our state’s 1992–93 framework for health care reform in the original MinnesotaCare legislation, [which] went well beyond a subsidized universal insurance plan into delivery reform, cost control, and population health improvement. We were clearly ahead of our time, but the approach is perhaps even more relevant today with the greater economic challenges we face. We need to change the model to include universal coverage for all enforced through an individual mandate, a global budget for all health expenditures in the state, capitation [fixed payments to physicians from HMO-type organizations] as the major financing mechanism for delivery, and a reliance on integrated systems that cooperate on the right things rather than competing on things that add cost but not value. |
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Irv Weiser We need to realize that changing something as complex and regulated as health care will be an evolution, not a revolution. While CEOs who run their own private company can change product lines on a dime, health care is right up there with religion in terms of lack of nimbleness in changing the current culture. We need to change the financing model, but this will come by creating efficiencies and working at the margin. |
This article was published in the July issue of Twin Cities Business, page 54.
