Where is the Republican Health-Care Reform Proposal?

The Baucus Bill, now on the verge of passing, fails to indentify and fails to address the root causes of the unsustainable escalating cost of the failing health-care system. Further, disingenuous and unrealistic budgetary scoring has falsely determined the bill to be fiscally responsible. As reasonably argued by many across the political spectrum, the 3rd party payer system that disconnects the consumer of health-care from the cost of those services primarily drives the unsustainable growth of our health-care costs. The 3rd party system creates nearly unlimited demand that in turn results in increasingly unaffordable premiums. Inappropriate government mandates and insurance regulation impose additional costs and discourage competitive forces, further aggravating the cost growth. The Baucus bill can only exacerbate escalating costs by placing more persons into this failed 3rd party system and by legislating greater mandates that directly increase costs and indirectly suppress competition.

Legitimate reform must transform the current failed 3rd party payer model to a consumer centered system that also promotes salutary free market forces. Such reform would include: 1. promotion of Health Savings Accounts; 2. tax treatment equalization of individual purchased policies with that of employer provided policies so that individual purchased policy costs and the employer provided insurance costs are both either taxed or not taxed; 3. insurance reform including fewer mandated policy benefits, ability for individuals and businesses to purchase insurance across state lines, and allowance of insurance providers to fairly assess an individual policy holder’s risk in the price of the policy. Further reform reflecting traditional American economic principles, values, and individual freedoms would address the inability for some to afford insurance (many fewer than currently if above measures were legislated) by the Government providing subsidies to qualifying individuals and families to purchase their own insurance as opposed to creating a massive new entitlement program with more bureaucracy and irresponsible increased deficit spending.

Although various Republicans have individually made proposals that would provide components of sustainable and successful health-care, the Republican caucus has made no effort to offer a unified alternative vision for reform. Why have they not outlined a broad proposal incorporating the principles of individual responsibility, free market economy, and fiscal responsibility that they claim to espouse? It would seem the Republicans mostly are more concerned with thwarting the Obama and Democrat health-care reform rather than with offering a viable and responsible proposal to successfully address the health-care crisis. Sadly, both major political parties primarily function to obtain and maintain majority political control and the concomitant power and political spoils rather than to solve problems facing our country.

Liberal ideology promulgating the abandonment of the traditional American economic principles, personal freedoms, and values progressively erodes our singular national greatness; yet our liberty and prosperity has been threatened and damaged to a greater extent by the corruption of our political process and parties that now preferentially serves self-interest and special interests over the public good.

The many pressing problems facing our nation including the unsustainable health-care system, formulation of rational environment and energy policy, failing economy, etc., will only be addressed by thoughtful policy grounded in traditional American free market principles. But, before we can even hope for such legislation, the citizens of this country must take back the corrupted political system through historic grass roots pressure to force transparency and accountability on the politicians and bureaucrats.

Every individual can make a difference. Write your congressman and senators (contact info found at http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm); and join and contribute your time, energy, and money as you are able to grass root organizations such as the American’s for Prosperity http://americansforprosperity.org/national-site, American Liberty Alliance http://americanlibertyalliance.com/, and other free market based grass roots organizations.