Address Health Care, Not Health Insurance

Letter to the editor in The Daily Item focus on the Senate Republican's health care reform plan, specifically their proposal to aid free clinics.

While I agree with the point made that the focus needs to be on health care, not enrolling more people in government-run insurance, by and large the Senate Republican plan ignores this principle. With the exception of creating a state high-risk pool, most of their proposals are measures to fill in the gaps, rather than fix the problems with health care. Furthermore, they call on more of a role for government in health care, rather than less.

In contrast, check out this recent piece by David Gratzer called Can Capitalism Save American Health Care? which highlights the need to reform American health care, and how to do it (his four recommendations appear at the end).

Ironically, Senator Mike Folmer already had a package of health care bills which would reduce the role of government and provide greater freedom in health care, until the Republican leaders stripped everything calling for free markets and limited government.