reprinted from 7/31//03, because, in their zeal to keep Senior votes, Congress continues to make the problems worse, with such plans such as the Medicare Discount Drug program. Even USAToday, hardly a libertarian stronghold, concludes:

Letting the free market work is a better remedy for making prescription drugs more affordable for all Americans.

  This began with a news article about health care costs in Minnesota, which contained this text:

The 16 percent increase in health care costs in 2002 follows a 10 percent jump in 2001 and a 13 percent jump in 2000. Although the reasons for the increasing cost of medical care have been copiously documented since 1997, the question of what to do remains an issue.

"Obviously, it is not an easy solution, or we wouldn't be having this discussion," said state Health Commissioner Dianne Mandernach.

Or this, from ABCNews: National surveys say that while most companies will do their best to continue providing health coverage to their workers - at least for the time being - what really bothers business is the sense that nothing is being done to rein in health care costs. That, and the fact that nobody really seems to know how.

Think about this for a moment... the U.S. health care industry, once the best on earth, is in serious trouble. We have huge medical organizations, a big state agency to help, grand organizational schemes, and a multitude of massive federal programs... and it's becoming a bigger mess each year. Double-digit cost increases every year. Nobody seems to know how to fix it.

Nobody knows how to fix health care? How ridiculous.
There are many people who can tell you how to fix the health care industry. What is true is that nobody knows how to use government FORCE to make it better. We had a great health care industry until government programs and regulations twisted it into the current monstrosity that now seems out of control and beyond repair.

The solution is so damned simple that the only the ones who can't see it are the "experts" who are so thoroughly invested in the mess that they can't, or don't want to, see the forest for the trees.

Would it be an unreasonable suggestion to just get government out of the way and let the industry return to the free market system it once was?

Is that where we're headed? Not here, where so many of us have been brainwashed into believing that government holds the solutions to every problem. I can tell you, without the slightest doubt or hesitation, that it was government tinkering and government force that ruined our health care system. It was government that decided what should be done, how it should be done, and then forced everyone involved into doing it that way... and it hasn't worked. Big damned surprise.

If there is a system anywhere that isn't broken, government will find a way to "fix" it... then blame it on everyone else, and claim they can "fix" it again, with even more force and money.

Thanks to the government-pushed third-party insurance plans like you have at work, Americans are now paying, in advance, every month, more than any sickly person of 50 years ago ever paid... and you're paying whether you use it or not. Are doctors getting rich? Hell no. Are hospitals making money? Hell no.

Doctors find themselves in financial trouble, often facing bankruptcy. Many are dropping out or retiring early. Hospital costs have skyrocketed, and reading a hospital bill, if you can understand it at all, will astound you with it's prices. We no longer "know" our doctors. Hospitals have become consolidated, members of massive organizations, and have gotten increasingly impersonal.

Federal programs like Medicare have twisted the whole health care industry into ugly knots. Unbelievable bureaucracies, almost unfathomable regulation, and huge amounts of paperwork have turned health care into a national system of literal slavery. Everyone involved is adversely impacted... doctors, nurses, hospitals, and patients, and almost everyone else who is directly involved in providing care.

I said "almost" because there are naturally people benefiting from the mess. Consultants of a wide variety helping to identify and fix problems, or to set up new and even bigger organizations. Cost-cutting specialists, managed-care specialists, health care legal specialists, and scads of other fixer-uppers.

From the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc.  - A Voice for Private Physicians Since 1943 (yes, they're libertarian):

Government bureaucrats dictate necessary treatments. Managed care plans want you to pledge allegiance to them rather than to your patients. Government agencies issue confusing regulations that proliferate faster than the IRS. Doctors are capriciously prosecuted for violating ever-changing regulations, resulting in financial and professional ruin. You and your staff spend more time on compliance than on patient care, while reimbursement rates plummet.

Many doctors believe the best they can do now is go along to get along. But the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons refuses to accept that rhetoric from other organized medical groups. It's time for physicians to reclaim control of our profession.

AAPS recommends that doctors get OUT of Medicare altogether: An AAPS survey of doctors reveals that Medicare rules and government threats to prosecute doctors make it more difficult for seniors to receive appropriate, necessary and timely medical care because doctors are afraid to treat tricky cases or take on new patients. Doctors spend less time practicing medicine and more complying with incomprehensible government regulations -- more than 110,000 pages.

Medicare also makes it impossible for doctors to provide free medical care under threat of criminal prosecution. In 1995, AAPS marked the first "Medicare Patient Freedom Day" by treating patients for $1 cash, while refusing to file claims for reimbursement from taxpayers. The government responded by saying it was illegal not to file a claim for payment.

Dr. John Bennet has written his own "Declaration of Independence" from Medicare.

Knowing what must change is simple, but, as usual, government stands in the way. Getting it out of the way and allowing health care to heal itself is really the problem.

As Ronald Reagan once said "Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! "

You've heard me say it many times... there is only one ideology and only one political party that even wants government to step aside so we can prosper as we once did.