This is a debate that has sort of been pushed under the carpet but is re-emerging as we draw closer to the presidential election. We all agree that the current healthcare system has many flaws and that many people are losing coverage. What we disagree about are reasons for this mess as well as the solutions to fix the problem. For anyone to make an informed decision it is important to know the causes of the current effects we are seeing in the healthcare sytem. I'm going to provide some important facts in comparison to the left's idea of our current system as well as provide a reasonable solution to this crisis that does not require involving more government.

Here are some of the arguments of the left:

47 Million people don't have healthcare in America and that is unacceptable.

At one given time, the number is not always the same 47 million people. A person may not have healthcare at one point in the year and fall into the 47 Million category but obtain healthcare later in the year. Some of those people refuse to purchase healthcare or to be covered by Medicare or Medicaid. So the number of people who just can't get healthcare is relatively lower.

The market cannot provide preventative treatment.

That is actually occurring right now in many hospitals. The idea that somehow doctors are so "greedy" or don't care about their patients enough to provide preventative treatment in the free-market is absolutely offensive to doctors. In fact, in a free-market, doctors would have MORE incentive to provide preventative treatment because market forces would make the hospitals and doctors that provide these treatments the most successful.

Well the current system isn't working, so the only solution is more government intervention.

Almost two-thirds of the healthcare system is already run by the government. It is the second most regulated industry under Energy. Liberals shy away from any argument that includes the freeing the market and instead blame the problems on the rampant greed of the market. In other markets, such as electronics, when technology advances, prices go down. Computers used to cost a fortune, but as they became more advanced and production became cheaper, the prices went down. Because of government intervention and regulation in the system, Healthcare costs keep rising.

Healthcare is a human right, not an economic issue.

This is based on the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, which apparently is more important than our Constitution. Not to mention that healthcare is an economic issue. The free-market is more efficient and better able to allocate resources than any government agency. We must also define rights. The government doesn't give you rights, but instead rights are defined by what the government cannot take away from you. You obtain healthcare from voluntary trade among individuals and therefore cannot be protected under the term "inalienable."

America deserves a system where everyone is covered.

Simply saying universal coverage doesn't always mean everyone will have access to medical care. "Britain's Department of Health reported in 2006 that at any given time, nearly 900,000 Britons are waiting for admission to National Health Service hospitals, and shortages force the cancellation of more than 50,000 operations each year. In Sweden, the wait for heart surgery can be as long as 25 weeks, and the average wait for hip replacement surgery is more than a year. Many of these individuals suffer chronic pain, and judging by the numbers, some will probably die awaiting treatment." – CATO Institute

Insurance companies don't care about the people only about profits.

So? Any other time, when an industry focuses on making a profit, that industry is more efficient and better allocates resources. The problem is insurance industry regulation, which mandates coverage for certain procedures that most people don't even need. Therefore, costs rise. If consumers can chose the coverage that fits them, such as in the Auto Insurance market, prices would drop dramatically. If the Auto Insurance Industry worked like the Healthcare industry, you would be covered for filling up your gas tank. If the government does not stop mandating the coverage that insurance companies provide, then the healthcare system will continue down this path. People are not allowed to go across state lines to obtain care, which also limits competition.

McCain's tax credit, to every family, will be paid by taxing employers, who provide them care and millions of people will lose their coverage.

The problem with our system right now started with a change in the tax code in the 1950's, which said that employees were not required to pay a tax on premiums of insurance provided by their employers. Employers could now use health-benefits as a way to draw workers to their companies. The IRS ruling, which made this change, created the symptom of third-party payership which plagues the system today. Third-party payers, which take the form of HMO's today (which did not arise because of market demand, but government mandate in the HMO Act of 1973), create too much red-tape, bureaucracy, fees, and other mess that doctors must go through just to provide treatment. HMO's restrict competition which inflates costs high above their market level.

Barack Obama's plan is not "Socialized Medicine," so don't worry.

Although that is true, it is not fully socialized medicine but more of an opt-in plan, it does require a lot more government intervention and regulation in the market. Anytime the government gets involved in a market, especially one that already has 2/3 control by the goverment, the market becomes unnervingly close to socialized. Especially when he proposes a "National Health Insurance Exchange with a range of private insurance options as well as a new public plan based on benefits available to members of Congress" (www.barackobama.com). Once his policy fails to lower costs and provide more coverage, it is a slippery slope to a single-payer system. Our policy makers must have a sound understanding of economics before they propose solutions involving government intervention and distortion of markets.

What can we do to solve the healthcare crisis?

• Regulations which mandate insurance coverage and inflate premiums should be eliminated. Controls which restrict competition within the healthcare industry, and that limit access to insurance across state lines, should be ended. The HMO Act should be repealed.
• Another problem is over-licensing, which limits the number of people who can enter the market. We should eliminate the increasingly strict education requirements for clinicians and let medical professionals offer walk-in physicals or other services at competitive prices. Like Wal-Mart and MinuteClinic, they will rely on brand name and reputation to assure quality.
• We need to promote health savings accounts (HSA's), which put spending in the hands of consumers and encourage them to shop around for low-cost alternatives.
• Current tax policy, which is biased towards employer-provided, over-coverage health insurance, should be reformed, encouraging individual purchase of less costly catastrophic policies. Insurance companies should (and would, in a free market) only cover individuals in the most catastrophic situations. The cost of minor procedures and doctor visits would begin to decrease dramatically.
• Medicare and Medicaid, like the other areas of the system, need to be transformed to emphasize patient choice. In the short term, they should focus on the truly needy, and add cost-saving incentives.
• And finally, let’s not rule out private charities and free-health clinics, which have been around forever and will probably grow if the market is freed up.

*I recommend reading The Cure by Dr. David Gratzer. It is a really telling book about the true nature of the healthcare system.