One of the most important issues currently facing Americans is that of health care reform. Within the current system of privatized health care providers, many of which seek profit as a higher cause than patient care, the new Managed Care Act hopes to encourage change by creating a new kind of health care plan. These new plans, called accountable health care plans, would be formed by traditional insurance companies with a single product as their focus – low-cost health care. This would result in lower health insurance quotes for Americans, and in theory better standards of care as these plans would be required to meet several federal stipulations in order to operate. While these plans are not yet in existence, they have a great deal of potential as a way to help limit health care costs.

Currently, most health care plans in the United Stats operate under an HMO or PPO structure, both of which partially limit patient choice and can result in high premiums and difficulty obtaining care. Under the new legislation, insurers would be encouraged by the government to instead create accountable health care plans (AHPs), which would operate in a similar manner but be far less restrictive of patients doctor and treatment choices. To aid insurers in creating these plans, tax incentives would be offered to companies, and competition would still be permitted. The hope is that this will spur on the growth of AHPs as viable alternatives to standard health insurance quote options, while still allowing insurance companies to stay in the black and continue to make a reasonable profit.

The main difference between AHPs and standard models is that they would be subject to federal guidelines. All providers who created AHPs would then be responsible for documenting and reporting patient care methods to the federal government, who would assess if the treatment of patients was fair and their needs were being met. This extra intrusion by the federal government will hopefully be offset by the tax incentives offered, prompting insurers to begin creating stand-alone AHPs.

While many companies are still resistant to this model as it encourages government intervention and involvement in business, it does so in a way which limits the scope of federal power and still allows for both healthy competition and multiple health care types. This would not limit the creation or promotion of HMOs or PPOs, but instead create AHPs as a viable alternative. For consumers, the hope is that these types of plans would lead to lower health care quotes and rates, and that AHPs would be able to provide affordable healthcare to those that are unable to afford it under the current HMO and PPO managed systems.