"What we need to do is we need to start changing our paradigm to prevention instead of treating chronic disease. That’s what has happened in the Swiss system, and that’s why their costs are not going up."
Switzerland is tiny and doesn't have our social problems. But Coburn says its consumer-driven approach -- which is transparent to consumers in price and quality -- would work here.
Coburn knows markets aren't perfect. But he knows why the Swiss system works so well: "It forces people to shop, it forces people to make decisions. ... The point is, markets work -- if, in fact, we’ll trust them."
Bill Steigerwald
Bill Steigerwald, born and raised in Pittsburgh, is a former L.A. Times copy editor and free-lancer who also worked as a docudrama researcher for CBS-TV in Hollywood before becoming a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and a columnist Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Bill Steigerwald recently retired from daily newspaper journalism..
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