COMPETITION SOLVES HEALTH CARE

For all the rhetoric of "change," this election is a contest between two very old, and very important, competing visions of government.

Free-market thinkers have a clear and compelling case that the problems in our health care system do not represent a failure of markets, but a failure of government. For example:

• While government's role in health care has expanded -- one out of two health care dollars is now spent by the government -- health care has become more expensive, less efficient, and less accessible.
• Health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000 while inflation grew at 18 percent and wages grew by 20 percent.

A market-based system that would unleash the power of innovation and competition in health care is within reach - a key reform would involve transferring health care tax benefits to individuals rather than employers:

• McCain's plan would do that by providing every American with a tax credit of $2,500 per individual ($5,000 per family) to buy their own insurance plan.
• Switzerland, hardly a bastion of conservatism, has used a similar individual-based model where costs are 50 percent less than in America, with better outcomes.

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