IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Cut Costs Without Rationing Care By Putting Patient Back In Charge

IBDeditorials.com: Editorials, Political Cartoons, and Polls from Investor's Business Daily -- Cut Costs Without Rationing Care By Putting Patient Back In Charge: "Decades of data confirm a simple truth: If we want to lower health costs, we need to put consumers back in charge.

Many people now feel like second-class citizens when they enter the doctor's office. That's because everyone in the office knows that the patient isn't really the payer — that the patient doesn't hold the purse strings.

The greater the percentage of medical costs that patients pay to their insurance company in premiums, the more insurers are in charge.

The greater the percentage that patients instead pay directly to their doctor out-of-pocket, the more patients are in charge.

Whether it's televisions, computers or Lasik eye surgery, when consumers are in charge, prices stay in check. In 1970, consumers paid for 62% of all privately purchased health care out-of-pocket. Today that percentage is just 26%."