Health care. Just the words induce a lot of emotion; concern and fear are some of the strongest. You might be wondering if you’ll be able to provide for your family. What will happen if you get very ill and need expensive treatments? And, what will happen to the economy if we try to provide more to everybody; won’t that break the bank?

All of these are reasonable questions. And, it’s reasonable to ask what legitimate role the federal government has in providing health care. The controlling party in our federal government, with the outspoken support of Congressman David Wu, seems committed to enacting vast changes as one big package that can’t be understood. What’s the hurry? Why can’t we implement a few good ideas after careful consideration? Why can’t we look for modest policy changes that lower cost with little or no government involvement?

Before one can plan a solution one must understand a problem. Here are some generally recognized reasons for our currently large and growing national healthcare expense.

a) Health care plans must include coverage mandated by the government. Consumers can’t opt out of these items to get lower prices.
b) Health care insurance is exempt from antitrust laws which stifles market competition and enables price fixing.
c) Much health care is provided free of charge to the uninsured and the cost must be divided among paying customers.
d) The actions of trial lawyers have made many of them rich but have also driven up medical costs for all and even driven some medical services to extinction, with some areas devoid of OB/GYNs.
e) Doctors are unnecessarily gate-keepers to medical care in many cases and the AMA seeks to maintain this role for its members.
f) The consumers of healthcare usually pay only a small percentage of the cost, so there is essentially no incentive to look for a better price.
g) The newest drugs for which no generics yet exist are pushed by drug companies when lower cost remedies of equal value are available.

Before considering a solution, here are some other interesting notes.
– The cost of health care in Massachusetts has risen with the implementation of state-wide healthcare and the Boston Globe identifies it as a failure.
– Optional care such as LASIK has rising quality, rapidly adopts new technology, and costs continue to decline.
– Health care is a limited resource. Capitalism and market forces are the best way to exploit such a resource because all persons involved in the market are motivated to make the most of what they have.

Within this context, here are some ideas to address the high cost of health care. These can be adopted singly or in groups without creating massive bureaucracies.

a) Allow people to select the coverage levels they desire.
b) Eliminate the anti-trust exemption for health care insurance.
c) Address the illegal immigrant problem and ensure that legal immigrants pay their fair share for coverage and services received.
d) Enact tort reform.
e) Limit the areas of healthcare controlled by doctors to those requiring a doctor’s level of expertise to ensure patient safety.
f) Ensure all citizens have access to high deductible plans that provide coverage for catastrophic events.
g) Require drug companies to publish comparison information about the efficacy and side effects of their drugs against available generics and non-drug remedies.

Is there room to improve our national health care services? Absolutely. Do I want Americans to have the best possible health care? Again, absolutely. So, let’s recognize that government doesn’t have all the answers, doesn’t have the budget to pay for health care reform as proposed, and has a track record of creating entitlements that balloon over time. Rather than subject our generally successful system to radical overhaul, I ask you to support modest adjustments that will help control the costs and retain for Americans the freedom to choose their own levels of care.

Thank you very much for your support.

Sincerely,

Doug Keller