Free-market solutions to our health care problems
Since socialism didn't work for the Pilgrims and it won't work for us in health care, even if it's disguised as Obamacare, what are the alternatives?
Geoffrey Lawrence, fiscal policy analyst with the Nevada Policy Research Institute and fellow Write on Nevada blogger, has offered some excellent suggestions in a recent commentary he wrote, titled "Personal and Portable."
Another important reform would change the tax structure surrounding health care benefits. So long as health insurance is tied to the job and not to the individual, there will always be a sizable uninsured population as individuals move from one job to another. That tax structure should change to give the individual power over his own health care decisions. Rather than allow only the employer to purchase health insurance with pre-tax dollars, the individual should be able to claim a tax exemption on the cost of any private insurance plan that he purchases on his own. If such a change in the tax code were implemented, private health coverage tailored to the unique needs of the individual would become much more accessible, as businesses transformed job-related health care benefits into higher wages instead.Read the full article to find out what other solutions Geoff suggests.
Geoff isn't the only one with great ideas, though. Check out these free-market thinkers for more ideas on how to improve American health care.
· Dr. Arthur Laffer, internationally renowned economist
· John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods
· The Heritage Foundation's Fix Health Care Policy
· Dr. Regina Herzlinger, Harvard business professor and author of Who Killed Health Care: America's $2 Trillion Medical Problem - and the Consumer-Driven Cure
