An editorial “Making his case” explains
“…the president lauded Geisinger Health System’s ProvenCare approach in north central Pennsylvania in which patients are charged a set price for an operation – including pre-and-post-operative care – and essentially given a warranty that if anything goes wrong due to the surgery within a specified period of time, the hospital will eat those costs… Re-hospitalizations are down 40 percent and the medical system says patients and the hospital are saving money.”
It also stated, “To make that work, [the president] stressed the need for a self-sustaining public option that would make insurance available to those without it. The goal is to insure every American. The public option, he said, is a means to that end.”
WATCHDOG: The explanation of Geisinger’s ‘ProvenCare’ is very helpful. This approach, rather than fees for individual services, is one of many reforms advocated by experts.
The Intell fails to mention that a major purpose of a ‘public option’ is to inject competition into the system which is totally dominated by insurers, often few and cozy in serving large regions.
The speech was heartening. But President Barack Obama’s rush the next day to compromise on the ‘public option’ suggests, to paraphrase Teddy Roosevelt, he speaks loud and carries a tiny stick.
