Conservative Principles Now

“The most outrageous detail in the current House bill is the philosophy on which it is premised. It is premised on the philosophy that the government knows best how to organize 1/6th of our economy,” said Rep. Ryan (R-WI) today before visiting Heritage’s Bloggers Briefing. Ryan was speaking about the current House health bill, a behemoth piece of legislation weighing in at 1,990 pages and costing $1.5 trillion.

The Wisconsin Congressman does not lack health care solutions of his own. “With more market-based, patient-centered, consumer-directed reforms,” lawmakers could lower costs, expand coverage, cover pre-existing conditions and not add to the deficit, he said. ”But because of the ideological commitment and fixations of this administration and this Congress they are going down [the wrong] path.”

America’s health care system is one-sixth of the entire economy—larger than Britain’s. Restructuring something that large and complex in one massive bill rammed through Congress is a fool’s errand. There are bound to be major problems. Instead, we must incrementally reform health care in stages, by letting the 50 states act as laboratories for solutions. Let’s find out what works and doesn’t. Two major reforms already have broad support and can move us forward.

1: Give states more freedom from federal rules to experiment with reform measures, like medical malpractice reform and allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.

2: Fix the tax treatment of health insurance in a budget-neutral way so that people can buy it outside of their workplace. That way, you would no longer lose your health coverage if you change or lose your job, just as you wouldn’t lose your car or life insurance.