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Aug
18
- Scott Miller
“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand.”
- Sun Tsu, The Art of War
As we move towards closing out the month of August, our battle against the Statists and a government nationalization of our healthcare industry seems to be going well.
But, as any good general will tell you, the war is not over until the opposition is thoroughly crushed.
This leads me to a call for a bit of strategery on the part of our conservatives leaders in congress. You have been putting up a respectable fight so far, not nearly as effective as Rush, Sean and Mark Levin… and the American people themselves, but effective nonetheless. The Statists are on the defensive. They are in disarray, and they are a bit shell shocked… all good so far.
However, if we are going to truly win this war against the big government, nanny state liberals, we are going to have to pivot quickly and open an entirely new second front of attack. We need to keep up the pressure, but move to a different kind of pressure. We now need to give all those regular Americans fighting against a government healthcare take over plan, a plan to now fight FOR. A free market based reform package.
Senator Jim Demint has a plan he put forward that has most of the elements of a free market approach to healthcare reform. This from his site:
For years, DeMint has championed the expansion and strengthening Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Rather than using costly insurance bureaucracies to pay for primary health care services, patients could instead pay doctors and hospitals directly from tax-deductible deposits made to their HSA. HSAs also represent a real savings account: the money rolls over from year-to-year and is fully “portable,” meaning HSA coverage follows you even if you change jobs or retire.
To further reduce costs for consumers, the senator has introduced S. 2477, the Health Care Choice Act, which would turn the health insurance market, currently a patchwork of discrepant state regulations, into a nationwide market. This increased competition would allow families to shop for health policies across state lines and choose from a wide variety of plans to fit their specific needs.
According to the Institute of Medicine, most adults who do not have health insurance cite the high cost as the reason. Specifically, state health insurance mandates increase the cost of basic health coverage anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent, depending on the state and its mandates. In 1965, there were only seven state health insurance benefit mandates. Today, there are 1,961 mandates nationwide. These overly-burdensome mandates have created a health market that is unbalanced and unfair.
The Health Care Choice Act solves the state mandate problem by allowing Americans to purchase a basic, low-cost policy without hundred of benefit mandates they don’t need. Likewise, those Americans who are interested in a particular benefit would be allowed to do that as well. Furthermore, this proposal will help the uninsured find affordable health insurance, while also providing every American with better health insurance choices.
DeMint is also working to ensure that our burdensome tax code does not serve as another barrier to obtaining affordable health coverage. To that end, he has introduced S. 2835, the Health Care Equity Act. The Health Care Equity Act is the first step to addressing the problem with the highly uneven subsidization of private health insurance. The proposal allows all Americans who do not receive health insurance through their employer to deduct 100 percent of their health insurance premiums from their taxes. By making this crucial change in our tax code, we will begin to level the playing field among those who purchase their health care directly, on their own, or through their employer.
A patient-centered health care system would turn patients into shoppers, strengthen doctor-patient relationships, improve quality and reduce prices. This innovative approach would also give unprecedented health insurance access to small businesses and working families who are too often priced out of the current market. DeMint is leading the effort in the U.S. Senate to act as quickly as possible to ensure that America’s health care system remains second-to-none: patients are counting on us.
Republicans will only get one shot at making their plan for healthcare reform a big deal with the press, so I would suggest a coordinated kick off rally on the steps of the capital with every single member of the House and Senate present (ala the Contract With America kick off). Their plan needs to take Demint’s great ideas, build on them, and be communicated concisely in easy to understand language… something like this:
- We want to give the tax breaks to the American people not to businesses
- We want individuals to buy policies, just like they do for car insurance, that way they always have insurance no matter what job they have.
- We want all Americans to have access to Health Savings accounts, like your IRA, that will cover you for major medical procedures, allow you shop for the best healthcare, and keep any money unspent each year for yourself an your family.
- We want frivolous lawsuit reform that is driving up the cost of care for everyone
- We want to get rid of the crazy regulations that tell you that you can’t shop for healthcare across state lines.
If we do these five things, we can accomplish everyone’s goal of reigning in healthcare costs, expanding coverage, and improving the health of the American people.
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