This sounds like an HSA which already exists. Basically the employer purchases a very high deductible health care plan for the employee, think a $10,000 deductible, this makes the plan extremely cheap. Then they give the employee a certain sum every year to cover the expenses up to that $10,000. This money goes into a Health Savings Account or HSA. If the money is not all used in one year, it carries over to the next. The advantages are thus, the employer saves because the cheap plan + the extra money is still cheaper than the original plan that the employee had. The health care system wins as does the rest of us because it forces people to make their own decisions about their health care (ie, shopping for better prices, saying no to unnecessary procedures) and the employee wins or at least stays the same because they lose no benefits.
So what is the main opposition to these wonderful HSA’s? The employees themselves. As you can see, the employee has little incentive to use the HSA, since although they get the same coverage, they need to take a more active role in their health care through research and shopping. The obvious way to do this is to just pass a law and force them to do this, as was mentioned previously. I don’t really support doing this, as I feel the government should keep its nose out of most matters. However, the incentive to the employer is great due to decreased costs and certain tax benefits, so maybe the government could do more to encourage this behavior through better tax policies. Eventually I believe more companies will take advantages of these things and bring down health care costs and maybe make the American consumer a bit more health conscious and knowledgeable.
Also this was about the only good think that came out of Bush’s Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.