Voucher system

A program under which school taxes go into a special fund, from which parents are given redeemable coupons called vouchers that enable them to “purchase” education (up to specified amount of money) for their children in the school of their choice, whether public or private. Under the present system, many parents whose children attend private school (approximately one in eight, as of 1985) pay tuition out of their own pockets while also paying school taxes to support the public schools, a situation proponents of the voucher system think unfair. Critics of the plan believe that parents should instead work to make the public schools responsive to the needs of all students and that the voucher system violates the constitutionally protected separation of church and state, since many of the private schools are religiously oriented or affiliated. The voucher plan has been tried only in limited areas, and often religious-affiliated private schools are not included.


A system in which Medicare beneficiaries use vouchers issued by the federal government to enroll in health care plans of their choice. Early in 1985 Congress enacted legislation permitting this approach to the provision of care for Medicare beneficiaries in an effort to introduce competition into the provision of health care. Under the voucher system, the beneficiary enrolls in a federally qualified health care plan, and payment is made directly to the care-providing organization in a predetermined, fixed amount in exchange for the beneficiary’s voucher. Thus, the beneficiary decides which competing health care provider she believes will give the best services (best quality, cheapest, most accessible, or with the most desirable amenities, for example) in exchange for the voucher. The beneficiary receives the services by enrolling in a health care plan, which might be a health care organization (HCO), a health maintenance organization (HMO), a competitive medical plan (CMP), or some other organization set up to provide all the care benefits (outpatient, hospital, home care, and so on) required of a qualified program.


 


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