Health-care plans debated

WASHINGTON — Some say new, expanding "consumer-driven health-care plans" are just a way to force workers instead of employers to pay for more of their health-insurance coverage. But Joint Economic Committee Chairman Bob Bennett says they might just save the U.S. health-insurance system from collapsing.

Bennett, R-Utah, says those plans appear to hold down overall health-care spending by giving "consumers even greater ownership and control of their health-spending dollars." That makes insurance more affordable, so more companies may offer it.

But Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., ranking Democrat on the committee, said, "What they really are, are tax shelters that require people to pay more for their health care so that the insurance companies' stockholders can get rich."

In a hearing Wednesday, the committee evaluated how some such plans have performed in the two years since they have been offered widely.

Their forms vary. But one described by Humana officials, for example, gives workers between $500 and $1,000 up-front each year to "choose and use" health services. After that is exceeded, employees must pay for the next $1,500 to $3,000 of services. Expenses above that are then covered by true catastrophic insurance.

An Aetna plan described to the committee gives participants financial bonuses — such as $200 a year — if they receive annual physicals or other screenings to catch and treat problems early to avoid higher expense.

Bennett said it is important to give consumers economic incentives to hold down costs because of something totally unexpected the health-care industry has found:

"As the cost for a medical procedure goes down . . . overall costs actually go up." He said that is because with insurance programs, "We have created the notion that someone else is paying for our health care. We, therefore, have incentive to use more and more health services."

With that, overall health-care costs have been rising much faster than the economy as a whole. Bennett said that cannot go on. "Something that can't go on will of its own weight fall. I would rather we do something about it to bring it down than to just let it go forward until it does fall of its own weight with catastrophic results," he said.

Bennett said consumer-driven health care may be the answer. Several witnesses agreed.