Harley Davidson

Fred Terry

fterry@elmore.rr.com

Principles of Risk Management and Insurance

Wall Street Journal Assignment 3

Due 16 Jun 05

Dr Deloach

Wall Street Journal 1 June 2005 Edition

O HEALTH-CARE LEADER, WHERE ART THOU?

Healthcare reform issues have been in need of leadership from the CEO’s charged with making them viable and so far Washington has failed to provide guidance. Business has taken the lead role in addressing the county’s healthcare worries, but it also needs to be addressed by the political party candidates when assuming the party’s leadership role.

With current costs slowing, businesses have taken credit for nearly doubling the amount of firms with “health savings accounts” to their workers from 14% to 26%. This trend allows insurance to return to their classic role of paying for ‘catastrophic’ medical bills while consumers save tax-free to cover routine medical costs and small emergencies. This idea introduces incentives to spend healthcare dollars more wisely.

This tax-incentive plan makes two crucial points: The impact on how the healthcare industry organizes, delivers, and prices it services won’t be felt until thousands of companies with millions of employees are doing the same; and companies need to offer such plans not in parallel with conventional plans, but as a sole option. In closing, will tax incentives figure more prominently in the mainstream? Well until reformers learn how to break the tax code, businesses will have no choice but to provide leadership in coping with the nation’s healthcare economy.

Jenkins