A New Vision for Health Care

Health care is a mess. Freedom, not more government control, is the solution.

by Rod D. Martin
May 14, 2000

Americans in the 21st century have the best-trained doctors and nurses, the highest quality medical schools, and technology that is nothing short of revolutionary.

And yet, for all of that, our health care system is a mess.

Born in an era of wage-and-price controls (another Left Wing boondoggle), our system allows employers – but not patients – to purchase completely tax-free health care. That's fine if you can get it; but aside from the fact that this setup is inherently unfair to small businesses and individuals, it also distorts and destroys the market: tiny groups of people in a handful of businesses and government agencies make the health care choices for virtually all Americans, choices that are prohibitively expensive for almost anyone else.

The result is greater and greater centralization, as more and more consumers seek relief from necessarily sky-rocketing prices. They are forced to look to HMOs – and the courts, and, increasingly, the government its…