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Interviews with news makers and discussion of topics important to Southwest Michigan. Subscribe to the podcast through Apple itunes and Google. Segments of interview are heard in WestSouthwest Brief during Morning Edition and All Things Considered

WSW: A "Free Market" Approach to Health Care

WMUK

Kalamazoo physician Ken Fisher says health savings accounts and high-deductible insurance plans would be the best way to fix health care, and could replace the current system. 

Last week WestSouthwest featured an interview with Missouri physician Ed Weisbart. He was interviewed about his proposal for a single-payer health care system. Fisher, who is the co-founder of the Michigan Chapter of the Free Market Medical Association, says a more market-based approach would lead to better care. He says it would also put patients more in charge of their medical care and how health care dollars are spent.

The proposal would give everyone a tax credit to establish a health savings account. He says the HSA would pay for every day events such as doctor’s office visits. Fisher says a high-deductible insurance plan would be needed to pay for larger or catastrophic events. 

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Interview with Ken Fisher - web version

Fisher says health care in the United States has morphed into “pre-paid health care.” He says tax credits that pay for a health savings account would put patients in charge of what they pay for their own health care. Fisher says there are big problems with Medicaid and Medicare which have caused major financial problems, but also reduced the quality of care.

Asked how the tax credits would be paid for, Fisher says savings could come from the current spending on Medicaid. He says there is also a tax credit already for employers to provide health care coverage for their employees. Fisher says “There is a financial issue and there’s a care issue. And I am interested in the financial issue, but I’m much more interested in the care issue.”

Gordon Evans became WMUK's Content Director in 2019 after more than 20 years as an anchor, host and reporter. A 1990 graduate of Michigan State, he began work at WMUK in 1996.
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