Everyone wants health care reform, including HealDeal.

As we all know, the issues are complex. A major challenge is who will pay for the increased cost of coverage. The public wants care but doesn’t want to pay for it. Should we have the $250K+ earnings pay for it? Should we tax health benefits, which effectively increases the tax on the middle class? Universal coverage will inevitable increase taxes over the long term.

The public plan option is another sticking point. Obama wants a public plan alternative for those that can’t afford coverage. It’s basically an expanded Medicaid option. Some don’t believe the government is as efficient, effective, and innovative as the private section at running a health plan. Furthermore, health plans worry that it’s not fair for to compete against a government run plan. The American Medical Association (AMA) is also weary of an expanded government run program because of the low reimbursement rates from Medicare and Medicaid. Despite all these challenges, coalitions and all impacted groups from pharma to health plans to providers want to see change.

In addition to all these challenges, Obama wants to fix health care without increasing the deficit!

All this momentum is encouraging and hopefully we can materially increase coverage. While increased coverage will reduce the cost of health care (e.g., use of preventative care, fewer ER visits), more will still need to be done. We believe that until the health care market becomes more of a consumer market, costs will continue to rise faster than inflation. We know other countries which offer universal coverage still suffer from increased cost of health care. Until the incentives are aligned the cost of care will continue to increase.

HealDeal was started to create a free market for health care services. This free market rewards providers for quality work and patients for smart shopping and health behavior. Like others in the health care business, we’re willing to change our business model to accommodate increased coverage but the core reason for our existence will remain the same: bringing free market transparency to health care.