Law Commons^™

Can Consumer-Choice Plans Satisfy Patients? Problems With Theory And Practice In Health Insurance Contracts, Wendy K. Mariner

Faculty Scholarship

Much scholarship has considered whether health care - and insurance - should be distributed by voluntary contract or subject to government standards or regulation. Contracts will likely play a key distributive role in any future health care system. Yet we do not fully understand where private contracting does and does not work to further the goals of equitable access to affordable care. This article examines the role of health insurance policies in defining and enforcing access to medical care, focusing on private employment-based group health benefit plans. It describes models of consumer choice health plans and critiques their capacity for …