Health Care & Health Costs
Bypass Mania
The Libertarian Party's Legislative Program
Health Care & Health Costs
President Bill Clinton has brought the need for health care reform to the front of the political agenda. There is no doubt that our system is in crisis.
Twenty years ago, health care was a $42 billon per year industry. Today, health care costs Americans more than $2 billion per day, more than 14% of our Gross Domestic Product. These soaring costs are putting enormous financial pressures on American businesses, forcing thousands of small businesses to reduce or drop benefits for their employees. Moreover, health care costs are an increasing burden to already strained family budgets. At the same time, nearly 35 million Americans lack health insurance.
But President Clinton's proposals for socialized medicine are worse than the disease. The Clinton plan would increase costs, destroy jobs, impose broad new taxes on the American people, and lead to the rationing of care.
The only health care reforms that are likely to have a significant impact on America's health care problems are those that draw on the strength of the free market. The Libertarian Party has developed a comprehensive proposal for health care reform that will reduce health care costs, while extending access to care.
The Libertarian Party believes there is a better way. Our five-point plan is as follows:
Establish Medical Savings Accounts. One key to controlling health care costs is strengthening the role of the individual health care consumer. As part of this process, an individual should be exempted from taxes on money deposited in a Medical Savings Account (MSA), in the same way that he currently pays no taxes on deposits to an IRA. Money could be withdrawn from an MSA without penalty to pay medical expenses. This would increase consumer responsibility, while increasing access and controlling costs. Restructure tax policy. As a second consumer-based reform, taxes should be restructured to establish equity in the treatment of employer-provided health insurance, individually purchased health insurance, and out-of-pocket medical expenses. All health care expenditures should be 100% tax deductible. This will add a measure of fairness to current tax policies that penalize the self-employed, part-time workers, and employees of small businesses, while subsidizing health care for the most affluent in our society.
Deregulate the health care industry. There should be a thorough examination of the extent to which government policies are responsible for rising health costs and the unavailability of health care services. America can help lower health care costs and expand health care access by taking immediate steps to deregulate the health care industry, including elimination of mandated benefits, repeal of the Certificate-of-Need program, and expansion of the scope of practice for non-physician health professionals. Replace the FDA. The Food and Drug Administration is clearly an unnecessary burden on the American health care system. There is no evidence that agency offers Americans any real protection, but there is massive evidence that it is causing great harm -- driving up health care costs and depriving millions of Americans of the medical care they need. The agency should be abolished and replaced with voluntary certification by a private-sector organization, similar to the way Underwriters Laboratories certifies electrical appliances.
- Privatize Medicare and Medicaid.The current Medicare and Medicaid systems have clearly failed. Costs are skyrocketing. Patients are receiving second rate care. And, providers are being shortchanged. The time is ripe for drastic reform. The federal government should begin to restructure the system to give Medicaid and Medicare recipients more flexibility to purchase private health insurance.
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