As has been shown, government involvement in health care is the true crisis at hand. The Federal Government is forced to find an additional source of funding for its tremendous unfunded liabilities. The most likely source for this new funding is through expanding its insurance jurisdiction. Amazingly, the government's involvement in health care is one of the major sources in the rise in health care costs throughout the industry. Its involvement has also completely removed any market for private insurers to offer products for the uninsured low income and elderly.

What incentive does a Blue Cross or CIGNA have to offer a low cost insurance product for the low income or elderly? They have none and there is no market. The government fully dominates these areas.

If we wish for the private industry to provide health care for all Americans, then the government must eventually get out of the insurance business. It is a fallacy to blame the industry and at the same moment keep the industry out of those markets. If we want the marketplace to work, the government will slowly have to step back. It is that simple.

How then do you open up these areas to the private market? The answer lies in limiting over time the role of Medicare and Medicaid. This doesn't mean take away these programs from those who already have them. The reform that is needed is in their future expansion and availability. If you want to help those with a low income be able to obtain affordable health coverage, you have to open up these markets. Here is how you do it:

1. Freeze the number of enrolled Medicare & Medicaid members at their current levels. As members fall off the rolls, do not replace them with new enrollees.

   
   

2. For a fixed period of time, such as five years, provide vouchers for those new applicants who would otherwise qualify for Medicare of Medicaid to purchase a type of coverage created from the newly established free market (Footnote 1). The vouchers could only be used to purchase a qualified plan that adequately meets their needs. This provides a “stimulus” into an emerging market and ensures that those who would have qualified for these government programs would still receive the benefits of insurance.

   
   

These adjustments would still provide coverage for those who presently can't afford it and provides a safety net during the transition.

Reducing the government involvement in health care on the side of insuring individuals is paramount to creating a fair and competitive market. This marketplace includes all options and the freedom to choose the type and level of coverage they feel is best for them.

This influx in members into privately ran options will further increase competition and lower prices. With more customers wanting private insurance (and not employer based plans), an opportunity would arise for the marketplace to provide various kinds of insurance plans and other health care options such co-ops and health shares. Through this kind of market creativity, people are better served. This is the direction we as Nation should be racing to go in.

Furthermore, by limiting the expansion of Medicare & Medicaid, you greatly reduce the burgeoning federal deficit. Five years from now the government can actually begin to reduce spending and use those tax dollars in other needed areas such as education, infrastructure and the national defense.

By creating a market that takes care of the needs the government has been dominating for the past 40 years, we not only are able to better provide for those in need but we are also able to help restore the government to a sustainable level.

Responsible health care reform, such as this, will still take care of those on government health care but will also provide a way to create a marketplace for the low income and the elderly.

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Footnotes

1. http://healthcare.cato.org/free-market-approach-health-care-reform