Writing in the Wall Street Journal, economist John Cochrane suggests free-market health care reforms that Congress should enact if the Supreme Court strikes down ObamaCare (HR 3590). Some excerpts:
The country can have a vibrant market for individual health insurance. … The policy should include a right to purchase insurance in the future, no matter if you get sick. And insurance should follow you from job to job, and if you move across state lines.
Why don’t we have such markets? Because the government has regulated them out of existence.
Most pathologies in the current system are creatures of previous laws and regulations.
Cochrane addresses:
- The unfair tax treatment of insurance.
- Costly mandated benefits
- Premium support for Medicaid & Medicare
- Over-use of medical services because tax code has turned insurance into pre-paid medical care
- How the AMA limits number of practicing doctors
- How state controls limit number of hospitals
Read the whole article: John Cochrane: What to Do on the Day After ObamaCare – WSJ.com.
Via FIRM.
Via FIRM.