Single Payer vs. CDHC: A Dialogue
Because of other commitments, there will be a break in the Quote of the Day messages. In the meantime, you may be interested in reading the following dialogue.
San Diego County Medical Society
Single Payer vs. CDHC: A Dialogue
By Don McCanne, MD, and James Knight, MD.
Dr. McCanne is senior health policy fellow of Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org). He is also a retired family physician living in San Juan Capistrano. Dr. Knight is a past president of the San Diego County Medical Society and current CEO of Consumer Directed Health Care, Inc.
Although this dialogue is heavy in policy, the following two quotes, from my biased perspective, seem to express the fundamental dispute between single payer and consumer-directed health care.
Dr. Knight: What I very strongly disagree with is in the notion that any solution for the many must be built around the needs of the few.
Dr. McCanne: We don’t need a system that uses patients to maximize the return for insurers, HSA managers, and other superfluous intermediaries. We need to make every effort to meet the healthcare needs of our patients and of the nation at large.
http://www.sdcms.org/pdf/mccanneknight.pdf