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Friday, March 23, 2007

Republican RX

Wall Street Journal article on Sen. Tom Coburn's free-market healthcare reform proposals.

Mr. Coburn, like the White House, would remove the subsidy corporations get for health care, and instead give the money to individuals--putting them in charge of their health expenditures. It would expand HSAs, and allow consumers to buy insurance from any state, thereby avoiding costly regulations. It would modernize Medicare, allowing workers to invest their payroll taxes into a savings account and control their care in their retirement years. It would free up the states to inject Medicaid with new flexibility and competition.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Employer-provided health insurance is a throwback to the days of wage and price controls when businesses needed to find other ways to compensate employees in a competitive labor market.

It makes no sense, today, as it:

1) Adds to the cost of goods and services, thereby making American business less globally competitive.

2) Adds an additional layer of administrative overhead (with no appreciable value added).

3) Reduces the transparency of health care costs and quality which could aid consumers in the purchase of the best care at a good price.

Still, many conservatives oppose alternatives in the fear that these could lead to "universal health care" which many unjustly assume will mean "government run."

Too bad. Conservatives should, instead, accept the inevitability of universal health care and focus their attention on seeing that it is done, correctly instead of stonewalling the issue through fear mongering.

Properly done, this could be a winning strategy for conservatives in upcoming elections.