Free Markets, not Government Intervention is Key to Solving our Current Health Care Problem

When it comes to health care benefits, the free market system not government intervention is our only hope to fix what is broken. Government can help to force transparency and eliminate secret dealings between providers/insurers.

Expect to hear more and more during this coming presidential election about universal health care. On one side of the aisle, we hear, repeal, repeal, repeal, with no real logical approach to replace the Affordable Care Act with something better. On the other side of the aisle, we hear that health care is a right for all, and we need to elect a president that feels this way. We have not seen yet though a long term approach to pay for this health-care-for-all.

What we need now more than ever is our two sides to come together and cooperate. We need to fix the hyper-inflated costs, overtreatment, lack of transparency that exist in our system while the current carriers and providers try to protect the status quo.

Health care costs continue to rise, and these increases have come on the backs of our employers and the average Americans that have seen their deductibles, co-pays and premiums rise dramatically since the inception of the ACA. During this same timeframe, household incomes are only raising by about 2% annually. 

Take cosmetic surgeries for example which have largely been uncovered by health insurance plans and thus exempt from government regulation. From 1998 to 2016, prices rose on average 2% (Pittsburgh Post Gazette).

There are creative solutions in place now a days to help keep cost down, and purchasing your health insurance through your employer is still the best, most efficient way for you and your family. Bottom line is that health care can be expensive, and it is very, very personal. When reading articles, doing research and when looking at solutions, try to cut through the rhetoric, and look at the facts.

Medicare for all is not the answer to our health care crisis. Whatever solution is on the table needs to ensure that Americans have access to health care regardless of pre-existing conditions.

Most employers remain committed to offering employment-based health insurance which is still the best way to purchase health insurance.

The book definition of free-market health care is that prices for healthcare goods and services are set freely by agreements between patients and health care providers, and the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price setting monopoly or any other authority.

Bottom line, fix what’s broken, and leave what is not broken alone. If a union/employer has a health care plan that works for employees and their families, keep it intact.