Conservative Health Reform
Why It Could Deepen Our Health System Crisis
Washington, D.C. – The Hyde Park Project and the Wonk Room, the progressive policy war room of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, released a detailed critique of conservative proposals to fix our ailing healthcare system. The report, “Conservative Health Reform”, by Jeanne Lambrew, lays out the dangers of the type of plan most conservatives are putting forward, “consumer-directed health care.” This market-oriented model gives individuals increased responsibility for their own health care spending by encouraging high-deductible health insurance purchased in the market offering individual policies. The report details a number of problems with the conservative proposal:
- Discouraging the use of needed care
- Depressing the quality of care
- Undermining what limited protections exist in the individual market
- Putting millions of already-insured people at risk of losing coverage
- Worsening the uninsured problem
- Do little to affect excessive use and prices
- Raise administrative costs
- Diminish the effectiveness of cost savings initiatives