REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM

There are several ways to achieve real health care reform, says Benjamin Domenech, managing editor of Health Care News. 

Roll back the regulations: 

• The effect of decades of red tape and regulations in adding to the costs of care can't be underestimated.
• Real health care reform begins by undoing many of the thousands of counterproductive laws and restrictions laid on by federal and state governments. 

End the tax bias against individualized coverage: 

• Health insurance is primarily tied to employers because of the difference in tax deductibility.
• We must break the government-created, insurance-employer linkage and give individuals and families the ability to direct their care. 

Enact true medical malpractice reform: 

• The president's plan throws a few million dollars at studying medical liability reform.
• We already have a study: It's called Texas, and the positive results of its reforms are clear for all to see. 

Reduce Prices Through a National Market: 

• Combined with tax fairness in government's treatment of individual and family coverage, the right to purchase insurance across state lines will enable insurers to compete for customers.
• This will drive down prices. 

Embrace consumer-driven plans: 

• Consumer-driven plans are a major step toward enabling consumers to shop and save for care.
• This will help them exercise personal responsibility for their health. 

Ensure genuine portability of insurance: 

• Losing health insurance should never be a concern, or drive decisions about where you work or live.
• Insurance plans must be fully portable, regardless of where you live and whether you are employed. 

Reform Medicare and Medicaid: 

• Medicare and Medicaid are broken, insolvent systems that saddle taxpayers with the costs of massive waste, fraud and abuse.
• We must reform them dramatically while ensuring benefits for those who are currently in the system. 

Ensure access to affordable coverage for small businesses: 

• Make small group health insurance collectively renewable.
• Require pooling of each carrier's entire book of small group businesses so that no small group can be singled out for termination. 

Protect consumers through transparency: 

• Third-party payment radically reduces transparency in health insurance.
• The best force for ensuring contracts are honored and prices are competitive is an open, transparent marketplace. 

Source: Benjamin Domenech,"10 Ways to Real Health Care Reform," Heartland Institute, March 16, 2010.

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