Health Care

Somewhere in America today, our health care system will fail someone – a patient suffering from a chronic illness like cancer, a young family with a new child, or anyone else who slips through the cracks.  In Washington, it doesn’t take a doctor to figure out that our health care system is broken because it just doesn’t work for too many Americans.  Republicans and Democrats both recognize that we need to fix our health care system and that real reform will certainly require bipartisan solutions.

Unfortunately, from Wall Street to Main Street, the current Administration and the Democratic Majorities in Congress seem to have only one cure for everything that ails our nation – more government.  From billion dollar bailouts to trillion dollar stimulus bills, Democrats are running empty on ideas that don’t involve government intervention and taxpayer exposure.  Now, the Majority has set it sights on health care reform with the same mentality that the CBO projects will give us almost $10 trillion dollars in additional debt over the next ten years. I think most Americans realize or will realize that we simply can’t afford government-run health care and that we can’t afford to turn the patient-doctor relationship into a patient-government relationship

For instance, many Congressional Democrats have argued for the creation of a government-run insurance plan that would compete against traditional family plans already in the marketplace.  In theory, this government plan would be a low-cost alternative for those in need.  However, independent studies have found that such “competition” would cause as many as 119 million Americans—three out of every four individuals with employer-sponsored health insurance – to lose their current health benefits as employers drop coverage, forcing their workers into the government-run health plan.  The end result would likely be the virtual elimination of private health insurance and the creation of a one-size-fits-all government system that would use “comparative effectiveness” studies to limit the types of treatments patients can receive.

While a government plan might ensure every American an insurance card, an insurance card is no guarantee of access to quality health care.  In fact, to see what government-run health care looks like, we need look no further than the Medicaid program.  While surveys show that most individuals are happy with their current health insurance, a study by the liberal Commonwealth Fund found that low-income families would prefer to enroll in private insurance rather than Medicaid by a more than two-to-one margin.  One mother and Medicaid participant from Michigan said it best: “You feel so helpless thinking, something’s wrong with this child and I can’t even get her into a doctor….When we had real insurance, we would call and come in (to see a doctor) at the drop of a hat.”  Americans don’t care about the card in their wallet; they just want to be able to see their family physician who they know and trust.

To be certain, Congress does have a lot of work to do – not only by making sure states have the flexibility to modernize their Medicaid programs, but also by laying the foundations for more comprehensive reform.  There are free market solutions within our grasp that will ensure greater choice for consumers and also preserve the fundamental patient-doctor relationship.  Congress can and should focus on reducing the costs and inefficiencies that plague our health care system putting quality care out of the reach of so many.  We can expand access to quality coverage and improve health care for patients by encouraging doctors to adopt health information technology and by enacting medical liability reform to keep “jackpot” justice for a few from increasing health care costs for everyone. The regulatory barriers that keep many small businesses from being able to afford coverage for their workers must be torn down.  Additionally, Congress can provide assistance for low-income individuals and create a market-based “exchange” where traditional family health plans compete against each other to ensure the best quality of care for the best price. 

Finally, health care is more than just treatment – it’s prevention.  We need market-orientated incentives for healthy behaviors so that consumers can live healthier, longer lives and avoid costly medical treatment for preventable diseases.  At the end of the day, we need a health care system that is defined by terms like prevention, access, quality, and patients – not by bureaucrats and government intervention.