Your brain on universal health care

The state of Oregon tried a bold experiment. They were going to provide universal health care. More precisely it was intended to provide health insurance to those not covered between existing government plans and private sector plans. I nice idea, and idea full of good feelings.

I have written this before. As the price of a good goes down the demand goes up. As the economy moves toward a downside in the business cycle the money the government takes in goes down as taxes collected goes down. That does not change the fact that they made commitments. What happens next? Budget cuts and service cuts. This will happen if the federal government wades into health care as well. The federal government can just print money by borrowing. States generally cannot, most states have a requirement to balance their budget.

What are the answers then? There of course are problems in the way we deliver health care insurance. The answers are not to be found in government. The are to be found in the private sector. They answers have to be in reducing costs. Subsidized care from the government only reduces prices. Costs and prices are not the same.

Medical Savings accounts. Let people control more of their medical spending. They will decide if the test being ordered by the doctor is necessary. Instead of the traditional setup where the company tells you what is covered and what is not. Deposit an amount into a Medical Savings account and let them control it. For catastrophic events carry a supplemental insurance plan at a much lower price. When people control their health care they will use it more wisely. Too many people see it as 'free' It is far from free.

Open up health insurance beyond state boundaries. Let insurance companies compete outside of their own state. As the commercial says when lenders compete you win. When insurers compete you also win.

Take steps to unlink health care from our jobs. President Bush had some interesting ideas on this earlier in this term. All were dead on arrival.

Further reform tort reform. The more doctors of all specialties get sued the more tests they will order. They have to do this as documentation when they get sued. Take away the medical lottery when things go bad and you will have doctors ordering the tests that are really needed and not practicing defensive medicine.

These are only the tip of the iceberg. The Heritage Foundation has done great work on this. I truly recommend them as a resource. They have much better info than I do.

All over the country we see state health care plans failing to live up to promises. Do we really want this to happen nationally?