Sensible Health-Care Reform (Part 13): Components of True and Viable Health-Care Reform (Part III)

This is the last of a series of commentaries, written from a free market, individual-centered perspective, examining the serious deficiencies of our current health-care system, the underlying root causes of those problems, the looming government fiscal catastrophe secondary to health-care entitlement spending, the failure of the recently passed health-care “reform” to address the grave problems facing our nation related to health-care delivery, the harm the recently passed health-care “reform” will cause to our seriously ill economy; and a proposal for a framework to truly, effectively, and sustainably reform our health-care delivery system. This report concludes outlining a framework for true and viable health-care reform.


True Health-Care Reform: – Addressing the Uninsured

These changes – a more patient-centered utilization and payment system, health-care insurance regulation reform, medical malpractice tort reform, and Federal tax treatment of health-care premiums and expenditure reform would significantly decrease the cost of health-care and health-care insurance. Making insurance affordable for more individuals and families would have a dramatic effect on lowering the number of the uninsured. Not only would many more persons have health-care insurance but they would have better and more responsive health-care.

The above proposed reform would greatly reduce, but not eliminate entirely, the numbers of the uninsured. For those who find themselves temporarily or chronically uninsured, instituting a simple Federal voucher program, for those who financially qualify, to purchase private health-care could to a great extent address their lack of coverage. Likely, this would also require a government agency to help some persons navigate this more consumer involved system. But, such focused and limited government intervention is compassionate, effective, and financially viable; and is much preferable to the current 2nd (3rd or worse) rate Medicaid system which is causing massive state and Federal budget overruns.

True Health-Care Reform: – Reversing the Governmental Fiscal Crisis and the Economic Downturn

Such true reform, utilizing traditional American free market principles, personal freedoms, and values that made our great land the global economic powerhouse and bastion of freedom, would not only reverse the crippling health-care cost growth threatening the financial viability of individuals, families, businesses, and state and Federal governments, and would not only decrease the numbers of the uninsured and improve the quality and responsiveness of health-care system, but would also stave off the inevitable governmental fiscal meltdown that will result from the current levels of entitlement growth and resultant deficit spending. Additional policy reform that shifts government health-care entitlement programs from a 3rd party payer system to a more patient-centered system, implementing tort reform, and effectively addressing Medicare and Medicaid fraud would drastically lower government health-care expenditure. Lastly, these proposed reforms would invigorate the economy: stimulating the small and large business environment, increasing employment, increasing tax revenues, and decreasing the numbers of individual requiring government support, again decreasing governmental (taxpayer) liability.

The resultant dramatic economic and fiscal reversal would create money now (not borrowed from the future and the future well being of our posterity) for prudent government programs as well as investment in our country’s infrastructure and future, and still lessen our taxpayer burden. Most of all, a strong economy and more limited government involvement would restore to the citizens of this country our unalienable human dignity and right to work and to support ourselves and our families, to make our own decisions, and to live our lives as we see fit.


Call to Action: Though passed by an appalling political process and with complete disregard of our Constitution, though containing ineffective and even harmful policy, though disregarding the inalienable rights given to us by our Creator, the passed health-care reform bill is not the end of the debate but rather a new beginning. It is an opportunity to contrast irresponsible policy with prudent policy, to contrast misconceived policy with thoughtful policy, and to contrast policy that places government in the center with policy that places the individual in the center. Get in the fight and stay in the fight. We have learned, the hard way, the consequences of leaving it up to the career politicians. Contact your legislators and demand they exercise the privilege the voters gave them to represent us to effectively address health-care delivery and the other problems facing our states and nation. Learn about the issues and talk to others about the issues. We must join and financially support conservative think tanks that promote traditional American economic principles, personal freedoms, and values; and that shine the light of accountability on irresponsible or faulty government action and policy. Those organizations include The Heritage Foundation, The State Policy Network, The Commonwealth Foundation and your state’s conservative think tank (see SPN for your state’s organization). We must join and support our local grass roots organizations like the York 9-12 Patriots, York County Action, York Campaign for Liberty, and others, so we can take back the political process that has become corrupt and ineffective. We must work to bring up, from the grass root level, candidates – principled persons (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) who will actually solve problems, who will respect the Constitution of the United States, and who will honor the “consent of the governed” entrusted to them by the citizens of our counties, states, and country.

God Bless and God Bless America!

4th of July

As I reflect on the proud history of our great country, I can’t help but also mourn that we continue to progressively reject the traditional American economic principles, freedoms, and values, and the vision of American exceptionalism that have made these great United States the global economic engine and the global shining light of freedom for the last century. The dual forces of progressive ideology and the corrupt (corrupting) political process have severely eroded our liberty and strength that arose from the protection of our God-given unalienable rights guaranteed to us in the founding principles of our Constitution.

Progressive ideology and its wealth redistribution policies threaten the American foundational concept of property rights. Protection of the fruits of an individual’s physical and intellectual labor has been the cornerstone of our country’s unmatched economic growth over the last 2 centuries. Imprudently, and to our country’s economic and societal detriment, our country is moving in the polar opposite direction of protecting property rights with the growing welfare state that encourages dependency and unearned entitlement, and discourages self-responsibility and initiative. Further, the welfare state can only incompletely fund these entitlements even with increasingly confiscatory tax rates on the present and future taxpayers.

This same “enlightened” progressive thought relativizes morality in the name of broad tolerance and “evolutionary” ethics, and rejects traditional American values of self-reliance and self-responsibility, individual charity and looking out for one’s neighbors, living within one’s means, honesty, fidelity, patriotism, and traditional family. “Politically correct” relative morality threatens to completely unravel the fabric of traditional American society’s values system, which is inherent and necessary in a government founded in God-given unalienable rights. Without a strong moral code, liberty – economic, political, and social – falls into licentiousness and injustice.

No less damaging to our liberty has been the corrupted political system that serves self and special interests rather than the citizens it allegedly represents. As a result of the nearly irresistible allure to remain in political office and to enjoy the assured level of comfort, power and privilege, our political establishment has proven to be incompatible with the ability to truly problem solve and address the daunting problems facing our nation. Simple cursory review of the passed financial “reform” bill reveals that it does not address the excesses of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that lead to the mortgage market collapse or truly address the “too big to fail” policies that encourage injudicious risk-taking by large financial institutions. Similarly, health-care “reform” failed to tackle the prime issue in health-care – the uncontrolled cost escalation that threatens the financial viability of individuals, families, businesses, and state and Federal government. Instead, the passed bill increased costs and the national debt continues to rise.

National debt at $14 trillion now equals our GDP and yet that number pales to the true debt including unfunded liabilities, e.g. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, state deficits, which add up to nearly 10 times that number. Deficit entitlement spending has turned upside-down the hallowed American tradition of parents and grandparents sacrificing to give their children a better future. Not only are we failing to save and invest in their future, we instead are taking money from their future for our present consumption. This ever increasing deficit spending and the widening discrepancy between GDP growth and debt growth can only end in economic calamity.

The economy continues to struggle with persistent and high unemployment. Long term joblessness (>26 weeks) has never been recorded higher than the current 46% of the unemployed. The number of individuals dependent on government continues to grow – Heritage Foundation recently assessed that number at 60 million – threatening the very essence of our republican system of government. In 2009, 47% of Federal tax filers paid no income tax and nearly 40% actually received a payment in the form of a tax credit. As taxpayers, we understand as unemployment persists or grows and citizenry dependence on government grows, we and future taxpayers will personally assume increasing excessive (confiscatory) tax liability. Yet we must also recognize the terrible injustice of past and ongoing faulty and misguided government policies that hurt the economy, increase unemployment, and encourage this dependence on government. These terrible policies, in the end, take away the individual’s right and bestowed human dignity to support one’s self and family and to make one’s own life’s decisions.

American exceptionalism that grew out of a Republic founded on the protection of unalienable human rights has been steadily replaced by the progressive mantra of equality of goodness of all the world’s political and social systems and the call to create an equal and just world society based on ever evolving enlightened human-conceived “rights”. The rejection of this vision of American exceptionalism has brought us to the brink of a fiscal and economic crisis that threatens our country’s prosperity, security, and ultimately our very sovereignty and identity. We must fight to restore our great country and our place as “the city on the hill” in this world by once again embracing the vision of American exceptionalism and the traditional American economic principles, individual freedoms and responsibilities, and values that made our great land the global economic engine and bastion of freedom – principles, freedoms, responsibilities, and values inherent in and nurtured by a system of government based on the safeguarding our God-given unalienable individual rights.