Rep. Laura Brod posted a question regarding health care on Facebook this morning. Specifically, she’s asking for opinions on Ross Douthat’s NYTimes op-ed. First, Mr. Douthat’s intro is important to tackle the question:

Three major problems plague American health care. The cost of premiums is eating up an ever larger share of take-home pay. The cost of our public health care programs is eating up an ever larger share of the federal budget. And millions of people who need insurance are priced out of the market.

Now that Max Baucus’s version of health care legislation has been blessed, at least provisionally, by the hands of Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, it’s increasingly likely that Congress will pass reforms that address the third problem, while making the first two problems somewhat worse.

The key, in my opinion, to figuring out this mess is understanding the role that politicians’ mandates play. For whatever reason, politicians have felt the need to overregulate. I don’t accept the premise that health insurance must cover every possibility. In fact, I’d argue that such policies are the problem, not the solution.

First, I’d question why the state of Minnesota needs 65 seperate health care mandates. Can each survive a justification process? I’m betting not. What I know is this: that a basic policy that covers catastrophic injuries and illnesses, covers annual checkups for various types of cancer, diabetes screening and cholesterol checks, coupled with a modest-to-high deductible, would lower costs dramatically. I’d further adjust the tax code to incent people to buy HSAs to cover the deductible.

If you did those things, the cost of health insurance would drop instantly and dramatically, which addresses the main reason why the people who choose not to buy insurance don’t purchase insurance. I’m betting that 90% of the current prblems with our health care system would be eliminated by doing those simple things.

That won’t happen until politicians stop looking for political solutions to a financial/medical problem. In short, GET THE POLITICAL ‘SOLUTIONS’ out of the way. They’re doing more harm than good.

It’s important that we understand that the Democrats’ bills don’t control costs on a sustainable basis. The Democrats’ idea of controlling costs is the imposition of price controls. While there’s no doubt that that helps in the short term, there’s equally no doubt but that that can’t help in the medium- and long-term.

If you want less of something, tax it more, regulate it more or artificially cap the price of that something. Within a year, you’ll see fewer young people signing up for medical schools and nursing schools, which leads to shortages of medical personnel. That’s what’s happening in Canada right now.

I wrote here that there’s a shortage of primary care physicians in Canada:

O’REILLY: Doctor, What would you say is the biggest problem with your health care system in Canada?

DR. BRIAN DAY: Well, the biggest problem is access & by access I mean we have 5,000,000…In the Canadian system, the first line of defense is the primary care physician & in a population of 33,000,000 people, 5,000,000 people don’t have a primary care physician.

This tells me that the Democrats’ goal of covering everyone is a noble goal but that they’re going about it the wrong way. I’d argue that we should do thing that lower health care costs on a sustainable basis rather than capping prices. The federal government imposes price controls through Medicare and Medicaid. As that becomes more prevalent, more doctors and clinics are limiting the amount of Medicare and Medicaid patients they’ll treat.

Price controls hurt all hospitals but it especially hurts rural hospitals and nursing homes, who get most of their revenue from Medicare. If ruining nursing homes and rural hospitals is our goal, then voting for the Democrats’ legislation is what’s needed.

If, however, our highest priorities are lowering health insurance costs and increasing affordability, then there’s no higher priority than defeating the Democrats’ anti-reform plans.

Technorati: Laura Brod, Health Care, Health Insurance, Affordability, Accessability, HSAs, Deductibles, Republicans, Canadacare, Price Controls, Medicare, Medicaid, Shortages, Rural Hospitals, Nursing Homes, Democrats

Cross-posted at California Conservative