FixHealthCarePolicy

In the Green Room: Dr. Norm Thurston, Utah’s Free Market Health Reform Architect

Dr. Norm Thurston is doing something extraordinary: he’s implementing consumer-driven health care fixes in Utah. When many employers recently started dropping health benefits the state reacted with reforms that make costs predictable for both employers and consumers. Predictability depends on accurate information for all sides. The Utah Health Exchange makes this possible. Here’s how it works:

Companies choose a fixed amount to contribute toward employee health benefits. Employees contribute pretax money from their own paychecks, and they can make contributions from a spouse’s job or a second employer as well.

Health Insurance companies will now have to compete for customers in a transparent exchange that will “connect consumers to the information they need to make informed health care choices, and in the case of health insurance, to execute that choice electronically.”

The result? Expected lower premiums for individuals and companies with no loss in quality of care. A model for America to draw from.

Tags: Barack Obama, consumer centered health care, consumer choice, free market health care reform, health care reform, health insurance, health insurance exchange, in the Green Room, norm thurston, Obama Health Care Plan, senate health care bill, utah health exchange