US Health Care And "The Wisdom Of The Market"

After the rejection of the Clinton health care reform plan, USRepublicans and Democrats are now introducing many bills that would implement portions of that plan, says a report for the right-wing group Citizens for a Sound Economy, which notes that each of these measures will write into law a piece of President Clinton's plan for government-run health care.

These bills will mean fewer choices for consumers, force unfunded federal mandates, set up standard benefits packages and establish new government bureaucracies that come between doctors and patients, says Michael Cannon, CSE health care policy analyst. Government already creates most problems in the health care system, and these will get worse with extra government involvement, he says.

Rather than take choices away from consumers, Congress should seek ways to return to them the choices that government has already removed, he says. He concedes that there are problems in the health insurance market, but attributes the high cost of quality health coverage to the government, which has driven up prices by imposing requirements on consumers and coverage providers. The bills now being proposed will further jeopardize consumers' health by causing health insurance costs to skyrocket, he says. Employers will drop coverage and many more consumers will lose their insurance.