Bush and the Health Care Executive Order

As the Washington Post reports, Bush signed an executive order which "requires four federal agencies that oversee large health-care programs to gather information about the quality and price of care, and to share that information with one another and with program beneficiaries."

The article claims that "the initiative underscores Bush's belief that the nation's health-care system would be more efficient if consumers could shop for the best care at the best price, administration officials say."

Bush is quoted saying "The fact is, if you have excellent information about quality, about service and about price, people make good decisions"

Yet this philosophy isn't going to make health care affordable to the over 40 million American citizens who are uninsured. Furthermore, the the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens. We end up paying more partly because our large number of uninsure citizens; $41 billion a year .

In the same article, Bush touts his health savings account "would go a long way to making consumers more interested in the cost of their health care." Yet a recent study published in "Health Affairs" rebukes that claim as one of the authors says:
“It’s hard to shop on price because the information currently available isn’t set up that way. You can know the cost of a doctor’s visit but if something is wrong and you must be treated, the costs for a course of future events is hard to assess ahead of time. It’s not like buying a car or a house.”

Furthermore, the study found that:
"HSAs and the high-deductible health-insurance plans they’re paired with can reduce the cost sharing for enrollees who spend the most and the least on healthcare, but increase it for the majority of people who fall in the middle."

Thus these health savings accounts aren't the "change agent" to reduce total medical costs in this country.