Heritage Foundation research summary provided by The Market Institute.
On October 31, 2013, Heritage released Backgrounder #2847 outlining how Obamacare should be repealed and replaced with free market solutions devoid of government interference. The nation needs to move away from government controlled healthcare and towards a patient-centered market-based system. 5 principles should guide healthcare reform:
- Choose, control, and carry your own health insurance;
- Let free markets provide the insurance and health care services that people want;
- Encourage employers to provide a portable health insurance benefit to employees;
- Assist those who need help through civil society, the free market, and the states;
- Protect the right of conscience and unborn children.
Carrying health insurance, or portability of policies, from job to job and through retirement would be an important step in promoting people to purchase health coverage. Where Obamacare ultimately restricts access to different provider networks through different means, healthcare reform should empower patients to seek out the care they would like and receive it. Also, enhancing Health Savings Accounts, which are skyrocketing in popularity, would result in more savings and personal ownership of health insurance. Finally, re-configuring an entire healthcare system because of patients with pre-existing conditions is not necessary. The number of people being denied coverage is not as high as the White House reported, but to help the ones that are at risk would involve states operating high risk insurance pools.
Removing federal interstate barriers that prohibit competitive pricing for health insurance products would reduce premiums for millions of Americans. Another way to reduce costs would be to form purchasing pools consisting of local organizations that sign up their members collectively for insurance.
Encouraging employers to change their typical model of defined benefits to defined contributions would allow employees to buy insurance plans of their own choosing. Combined with other changes to the healthcare system, a defined contribution model would allow a person to purchase health insurance in their youth and carry that policy the rest of their life.
Cracking down on fraud, which is estimated to be as high as $60 billion, would preserve programs like Medicare and Medicaid for future generations. The country is also facing a doctor shortage in the near future which can be mitigated by taking steps to reduce frivolous lawsuits, which would in turn reduce the amount of defensive medicine. Defensive medicine is affecting overall healthcare costs in the country by $126 billion per year.
Obamacare is doing the exact opposite of what healthcare reform in the United States should do. It is raising costs, eroding doctor-patient relationships, and placing a massive financial burden on American taxpayers. Instead of government-centric healthcare, enabling the free market to meet consumer demands is the best way to move this country’s healthcare system in the right direction.
