Thursday, September 10, 2009

HEALTH CARE REFORM BASED ON FREE MARKETS AND COMPETITION

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President Obama continues to portray those who oppose his plan are said to be "obstructionist" or in favor of the status quo. Recently, the President again said, "I've got a question for all those folks [who oppose his plan]: What are you going to do? What's your answer? What's your solution?"

If the President really wanted to know more he might have read Michael Tanner's recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times or Michael Cannon's piece in Investors Business Daily (IBD). He could have read Cato's book, "Healthy Competition." Or he might have just gone to healthcare.cato.org and read their plan:

  • Let individuals control their health care dollars and free them to choose from a wide variety of health plans and providers.
  • Move away from a health care system dominated by employer-provided health insurance; health insurance should be personal and portable, controlled by individuals themselves rather than government or an employer.
  • Changing from employer to individual insurance requires changing the tax treatment of health insurance; workers should receive a standard deduction, a tax credit, or, better still, large Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) for the purchase of health insurance, regardless of whether they receive it through their job or purchase it on their own.
  • Increase competition among both insurers and health providers; people should be allowed to purchase health insurance across state lines (one study estimated that this adjustment alone could cover 17 million more Americans without costing taxpayers a dime).
[All of which has been proposed, in Congress, in Republican plans that have been banned by the majority from being placed on 'the calendar' for any vote.]

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