You Say You Want a Real Solution
By Frank Salvato
August 21, 2009
As the debate over health care reform rages on -- and despite the fact that the debate should be over how to provide true health care affordability to all, if in fact the goal of the "overhaul" is genuinely about the good of the downtrodden -- we hear one retort from Progressives, Liberals and neo-Marxists, both in government and out: Where is your plan if you don't like ours? Truth be told, there are several conservative and Republican crafted plans but Madam Pelosi and Mr. Reid won't entertain them and the agenda-driven mainstream media won't cover them. But one thing is evident, even to the intellectually challenged. If the goal is truly to provide health care affordability to every American citizen, there are ways to do it without the heavy hand of government.
Most honest Americans agree, our health care system -- the system that provides medical service, i.e. doctors, hospitals, clinics, etc. -- is the best in the world. It certainly does not need reform or government intervention. If you need proof it comes in the form of the richest and most powerful people in the world coming to the United States for treatment, especially when every other avenue of treatment has been exhausted. To fall prey to the notion that the "health care system is broken," is to be gullible to a fault.
The cog that isn't meshing correctly in the machine that includes patients, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies is the insurance company cog. Many in our country would like to see more affordable prices, inclusionary coverage for those of us with pre-existing conditions and security in knowing that if a catastrophic medical event happens to us we won't be driven to the poor house by increased premiums of unfunded procedures. As our health care insurance system exists today, these desirable elements are not within reach of everyone. But by including a few simple provisions and/or pursuing a few sensible avenues, Americans can have affordable, functioning health care insurance for all without creating a government-run health care entity.
Anti-Trust Laws
Currently, health care insurance providers are exempt from facing anti-trust or competition law prosecutions. Anti-trust laws are defined as having three main elements:
"Prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business entities, including, in particular, the repression of cartels.
"Banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others.
"Supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to 'remedies' such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing."
By making the health insurance industry vulnerable to anti-trust action the industry would be forced to compete without injecting a ridiculous and dangerous government-run health care insurance entity into the market. Competition would not only lower the cost of health insurance but it would compel the capitalistic nature of the private sector to find a way to market their services to new and emerging demographics.
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