Shifting Focus of Health Reform Could Yield Benefits

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) health care reform proposal "is to be commended for the 'shared sacrifice' that it requires," Ian Morrison -- a Menlo Park author, consultant and futurist -- writes in a Hospitals & Health Networks opinion piece.

However, Morrison writes, "This and all plans say very little about how health care will become more affordable or how costs will be contained in the long run," adding that "overall, it represents an emerging consensus that health care is both a right and an obligation."

"You have the right to expect some access to health care, and you have the obligation to participate in paying for it," Morrison writes. "It's easy to say, but the hard part is figuring out who pays for what."

Morrison proposes shifting the focus on health care reform "from coverage to care." He writes that a "benefit of focusing on care delivery, not coverage, would be reducing the absolutely staggering costs of administering the eligibility requirements for complex, means-tested programs involving moms and kids in poverty" (Morrison, Hospitals & Health Networks, 3/6).