A purchasing strategy for health care that encourages those managed care plans that do the best job of improving quality, cutting cost and satisfying patients to flourish.
A way of organizing health care delivery and financing that attempts to combine the best elements of government regulation and free-market competition. Those paying for care are organized into large groups, and health plans then compete for members based on premiums, covered procedures, access to services, and perceived quality of care.
government intervention in the health-care market to guide competition so that costs are reduced
A purchasing strategy to obtain maximum value for consumers and employers. A sponsor (that is, an employer, government entity, or purchasing cooperative), acting on behalf of a large group of subscribers, structures and adjusts the market to overcome attempts by insurers to avoid price competition.
A system proposed in 1993 by the Jackson Hole Group that suggests the individual employee receive a fixed sum from his/her employer and the individual employee chooses the health plan they prefer. If the plan they choose costs more than the employer's fixed sum, the employee is responsible for the difference. The individual employee would have a tax incentive to select the lower priced options because they would only be able to deduct the amount of the lowest cost option. The proposal's proponents believe this would encourage individual consumers of healthcare to be more price conscious and they also believe this will cause healthcare insurers to hold down the cost of their plans to make them more competitive. Because insurance under this proposed system is not tied to the employer, employees would not lose coverage when they change jobs. Under this system there is no provision to set premiums that appropriately cover the risk of an individual patient or specific patient population.
A theory of health care delivery in which a large numbers of consumers choose among health plans that offer similar benefits. In theory, competition would be based on cost and quality.
This proposal would overhaul the current health care system. It is an economic theory that organizes health care delivery and financing in an attempt to combine government regulation with free-market competition and has yet to be tested in any country.
Proposed system in which the government restricts the consumer to purchasing insurance from government-approved carriers.
A health insurance system that bands together employers, labor groups and others to create insurance purchasing groups; employers and other collective purchasers would make a specified contribution toward insurance purchase for the individuals in their group; the employer's set contribution acts as an incentive for insurers and providers to compete.