Free Market Health Care Option

If you haven't noticed there seems to be a bit of a debate going on in this country today regarding health care. There hasn't been this groundswell of Americans taking to the streets, picketing their representatives since those seniors in these town hall meetings were protesting the Vietnam War, or at least their contemporaries were. Are there any people out there who are neutral on this? It seems not, or fewer each day.

John Adams, when talking about the challenges of fighting the Revolutionary War, said that in any war it must be fought on three fronts. There would be 1/3 of Americans who believe strongly in the war, and the fight would be against the enemy, against the 1/3 of Americans who would be against any war, and the big battle would be for the hearts and minds of the 1/3 of Americans in the middle, the moderates so to speak. This formula can be used in any contentious political debate as well. Consider that about 1/3 loved George Bush, and 1/3 hated him, his clout diminished as the left, the war, and the media was able to turn the middle 1/3 against him. We see the same 1/3 love and 1/3 hate with Obama and now are seeing the middle 1/3 move quickly away from him as well.

The Health Care issue is so emotionally packed that it is going to be difficult to have a reasoned discussion on it at this point. We might all be better off to shelve it completely for at least a year, cool off, and then create real debate, listening to all sides and trying to find a workable solution. It doesn't seem likely that this can happen, there is simply no trust in our elected officials at this point after all the strong arm ramming through of legislation over the last 10 months.

When we do decide to have a calm discussion we must first start with the fact that there isn't a crisis currently, there is no burning need to revolutionize everything at once. Tweaking might be a better approach. Unintended consequences of even the most well meant legislation is more often the case than not. This is why our founders in their great wisdom designed the bicameral legislation to make it grind slowly and inefficiently to keep the weight of government off of our shoulders.

There is a way to make health care costs and even services more affordable and more user friendly. However the direction that this health care bill is going is the exact opposite. The first step should be to tear down the government controlled walls that do not allow insurance companies from competing across state lines. There are about 1,200 different health insurance companies, yet in many states only 4-6 companies are allowed to sell. If we can open the fences and allow all 1,200 to compete for the business prices would drop and quality would improve.

If you would add true tort reform to eliminate defensive medicine where too many tests are done for the medical professionals to cover them from possible frivolous lawsuits, that too would reduce costs. These two things, increased competition and tort reform would accomplish most of what we say, we as Americans, want changed in our health care system.

If we want to completely make things less expensive and with greatly improved quality of service what we need is a first party payer system, and move away from the 3rd party payer system. Never to go to the single party payer, or government system being promoted.

Let's consider this. If you worked at a company that had a "late jar" where anyone who came in late had to drop a 5.00 bill into that jar. Then at the end of the year the person with the least late arrivals got the kitty. Now, you know that you were not going to win, but your boss asked you to take the kitty and go buy something "nice" for the winner. You would do so, but you would do it as a task, not really too concerned about getting the very best value for the money, more expediency oriented than value. This is simply human nature, you are buying something that doesn't benefit you with money that isn't yours. That is exactly how the 3rd party payer system always works. However, if you were called by your boss and congratulated for winning the kitty, but then told to go buy "something nice" and bring it in for everyone to see. Now it is your money, and what you buy will be for you, your effort to find just the right thing, and at the very best price is now high. Single party payer programs are famous for their waste, haven't you heard of the 600.00 hammers, and 1,000.00 toilet seats?

There is too much that isn't fair with our current health care cost systems. However, they can be better fixed with a free market 1st party payer approach. It is simply not right that those who can least afford good health care have to pay the most. Not the truly poor, they are covered by Medicaid. Those working at the lower rungs of the ladder, they are above the poverty level, but not employed getting health care benefits. How fair is it that the CFO of some big company has a gold plated insurance policy paid by his company, but the cleaning lady who cleans his office working for a contract company has none? He then has a skiing accident and breaks his leg and needs surgery, his insurance companies buying power reduces the bill from 17,000.00 to 9,000.00 and his deductible is 1,000.00. If she had the same surgery it would be 17,000.00, that simply isn't right.

My proposal would be to eliminate employer supplied health care, the business community would love it. However, don't replace it with a much worse government program, but a free market approach. Allow every American a voucher, a tax credit, that would allow them to purchase their own policies. There would be a weaning process to allow both the consumers and insurance and medical industries to adjust and retool.

With this idea each American would shop among different policies by different companies. Each company would want a bigger share of those consumer dollars would be scrambling to create a smorgasbord of choices as options. There would be the McDonalds/Wal-Mart level with cheap and basic care, who knows it might be those companies who go after that market. There would be options all the way to the gold plated. But all would have access to affordable care.

The medical industry would also start competing, you would be able to shop prices before getting services. The plastic surgery, and Lasik business is done by free market and is actually a good example for the rest. With free market as doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies truly competed for your business everyone would benefit. It would allow the "invisible hand" of competition to truly police the market.

All of this would have no increase in government spending, would lower the cost of health care for all Americans, and would help preserve the liberty and freedom for our children that we were offered by our forefathers.