Health care system is unsustainable, says CED president.

Byline: John Harrington

Oct. 31--Convinced that the current health care system, driven in large part by employers, is unsustainable, a national group of CEOs and university presidents advocates scrapping the current way of insuring Americans in favor of a plan it says provides broader coverage, more individual choice and better cost controls.

Charles Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, told professionals Tuesday at the Montana Health Care Forum that the current system costs more than any in the world but doesn't offer better health care than any other developed country while leaving too many people without insurance.

Instead, the CED proposes a plan where every American would be offered a menu of health insurance choices, with the government providing a benefit that would allow everyone access to at least the most basic coverage. A system of "regional exchanges" loosely modeled on the independence and structure of the Federal Reserve would set standards for plans across the country.

"We don't think the business sector is going to be able to come together and do what's necessary to save the system," Kolb said. "What we are recommending is the transition to a market-based, incentive-oriented system of universal health insurance through a network of regional exchanges paid for with mixed dollar credits." A big problem, Kolb said, is that the incentives for keeping costs in line are misplaced in the current system, with the result being health care consuming 16 percent of our gross domestic product compared to 9 or 10 percent in other industrialized countries.

"Business, in 60 years of providing coverage, has never been able to get its arms around the cost," he said.

The problem, he said, is with the way the system is structured: "It encourages cost-unconscious choices by both providers and patients." One business that claims to be reigning in costs is Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Speaking in the same panel discussion, Kate Sullivan Hare, the firm's director of health care policy, said Wal-Mart's year-old policy of filling prescriptions for ...