Sure. But only giving users control, in the form of being able to choose between the available providers, does not solve the problem by itself.
Say you sprain your pinky finger and your insurance covers two doctors: Donald Drugmeister who can afford to pay his office staff only by pushing the latest offerings from Pfizer, and the excellent surgeon Carl Cutter who will decide your root problem is in some organ that needs to be removed. You may feel vast relief that you're able to choose Donald over Carl, but in actuality you'd be better off going to your mom who will give you an ice pack (not covered by your insurance!) and kiss you on the forehead.
The US healthcare system, at least, cannot be fixed simply by handing over all control to the patients. That'll just end up with even more strenuous efforts by the pharmaceutical companies to convince of us, the non-medically astute population, of the necessity for various drugs that they happen to make money off of. And even more antibiotic overuse and unnecessary procedures.
I think having choice of doctors is part of the solution, as is having a pretty high degree of control over what procedures and drugs are used in each personal situation. But if the only fix on offer is to allow more control over the choice between mediocre or bad options, then we're all screwed. (And the less privileged are even more screwed than the rest of us.)
I agree that the system shouldn't even bother to guarantee the best outcome for all people, but I don't think empowering people to make their own outcomes is going to get us very far.
Whether it's the US or the UK or wherever, you need to be an active participant in your health choices and reading up on the materials available to you.
That isn't affected by whether your healthcare is socialized or infinitely expensive.
You probably have more choice in a non-totally socialized healthcare setting, but only to the extent you can afford choices. Neither extreme is any good, but the ideal is a golden median with many affordable choices.
Say you sprain your pinky finger and your insurance covers two doctors: Donald Drugmeister who can afford to pay his office staff only by pushing the latest offerings from Pfizer, and the excellent surgeon Carl Cutter who will decide your root problem is in some organ that needs to be removed. You may feel vast relief that you're able to choose Donald over Carl, but in actuality you'd be better off going to your mom who will give you an ice pack (not covered by your insurance!) and kiss you on the forehead.
The US healthcare system, at least, cannot be fixed simply by handing over all control to the patients. That'll just end up with even more strenuous efforts by the pharmaceutical companies to convince of us, the non-medically astute population, of the necessity for various drugs that they happen to make money off of. And even more antibiotic overuse and unnecessary procedures.
I think having choice of doctors is part of the solution, as is having a pretty high degree of control over what procedures and drugs are used in each personal situation. But if the only fix on offer is to allow more control over the choice between mediocre or bad options, then we're all screwed. (And the less privileged are even more screwed than the rest of us.)
I agree that the system shouldn't even bother to guarantee the best outcome for all people, but I don't think empowering people to make their own outcomes is going to get us very far.