The Progressive Policy Institute and the Committee for Economic Development agree that employer-based insurance is not working, and do not advocate a government takeover of health care.
the heart of the problem is that the vast majority of employers offer their employees no choice; they offer either no insurance at all, or one plan. For firms that offer coverage, having just one plan is administratively simpler. Insurers also prefer to cover all of a firm’s employees, because that minimizes per-worker administrative cost and obviates the risk of enrolling only the sickest employees. Because employees, understandably, want to choose their own doctors, employers tend to offer one insurance plan that offers access to as many doctors as possible; and the only way to reimburse doctors under such wide access is fee-for-service payment.
Therefore, the vast majority of employees have no opportunity or incentive to choose a cost-effective high-quality health plan, and health-care insurers and providers have no inducement to provide the quality, affordable care that consumers want.
Their proposals for change, such as “regional exchanges modeled after the federal employees Health Benefits program, a Health Fed based on the Federal Reserve to regulate health insurance plans, and a universal credit that would guarantee everyone basic coverage without subsidies for higher cost health care,” are still debatable, but at least we agree on the problems with the current system. Something it is hard to get from North Carolina’s supporters of universal health care.
