The conservative agenda: pushing business out of health care - business and health insurance benefits

Business & Health, June, 1995 by Harris Meyer

"More consumer ownership is absolutely the right concept, says Wetzell of the Minneapolis business group. "But you have to do it with health-care systems competing on a level playing field."

Small business, too, likes the idea of handing over responsibility to employees but its representatives doubt that individual purchasing is realistic at this point. "To the extent that they buy insurance, small employers are better off buying in groups, and the larger the group the better," says Mark Isakowitz. "If you have more individuals purchasing insurance, you could be decimating groups, so small employers have to feel free to get completely out of the health insurance business."

Whatever their size, "for the next five to 10 years, employers will continue to be the major force driving the market," predicts the National Business Coalition's Sullivan. The irony is that a managed care market that reverses the entrepreneurial tradition of American medical practice could be the vehicle that converts the system to independent purchasing.

Harris Meyer is a health-care writer based in Chicago.