Even though the current plan being debated in the halls of congress will expand coverage for more individuals, it does nothing to improve health care in the United States over the long run. It will actually deteriorate its quality as has been seen recently in Canada and Norway. In Canada their health care system was found nearly unconstitutional because the level of service was so poor and sub-standard that it was not meeting their constitutional requirement for health care (Footnote 1). The supreme court of Norway recently found the incredibly long waiting line to see a doctor illegal and mandated that the government actually transport its citizens to foreign countries to receive their needed health care (Footnote 2). The deteriorating level of care is a result of the government's monopoly on health care and the lack of a free market at work – the very system being devised for us.
Despite the American health care system being the best in the world, we should in means be pleased with how it works or fail to make major reforms to our ailing and inequitable system.
Currently, our health care system is one of government manipulation in the marketplace, monopolies in the insurance industry, and a dearth of options for the individual when it comes to their own insurance options at a price that is unaffordable for almost everyone. It has to change. I am, and think the American public should also be, for Freedom when it comes to health care.
I have said much about the President's plan and have shown how, despite its best intentions, it is destructive of individual freedoms and is the wrong direction for America in the present and future at the individual, national, and family level. The case I have presented is strong in its opposition to the current plan. However, reform is very badly needed or else the status quo, which is also wrong for America, will continue.
Necessarily then, I will now proceed to show the type of reform that is needed to bring about sustainable and improved health care for all desiring citizens.
Health Care Reform must include health insurance reform. The kinds of reform that are needed are as follows:
End the exemption to the federal anti-trust laws that the insurance companies enjoy
End the monopoly insurance companies have over health care reimbursements through:
- Privately Ran Health Care Cooperatives
- The establishment of standards for rates billed to the uninsured vs. the insured
Freeze Medicaid & Medicare at their current levels
End the Federal Government's manipulations on the health insurance market by eliminating the payroll tax deduction on employer contributions made to health insurance
Reform tax treatment for health care costs
End the employer based health care plan monopoly over health insurance
Increase competition within the insurance industry by creating a health insurance exchange that includes insurance plans across state lines
Eliminate the pre-existing condition clauses for most plans
Change the way health care is paid for: results vs. procedures (which is a valuable part of the current plan under debate)
Over the next several weeks I will expound upon each one of these and the potential impact they would have on the insured, the uninsured, and the American tax payer. These concluding pieces will show how the principles of Freedom and Justice are the most effective, principled, and correct rules to guide our actions in bringing affordable health care to Americans and supplying them with the best quality and level possible. Freedom, together with the government in its proper role, can truly create a more perfect Union, ensure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare of the the Citizens of the United States of America. Freedom truly is the last best hope of man.
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Footnotes
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