Winning the Health Care Debate

Health care “reform” legislation is moving quickly in Washington, DC. This is not due to widespread public support for nationalized health care, nor is it a concession by conservatives and libertarians that a government takeover of health care is inevitable. Rather, President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are moving as fast as they can to adopt a radical new entitlement program before Obama’s honeymoon ends amid public displeasure over a crippled economy, skyrocketing deficits and taxes, and foreign policy setbacks.

Patient Choice: A Promise Broken

Learning from the rejection of “HillaryCare” some 15 years ago, the Democrats assure the public they will be able to keep their private health care plan if they choose to. The reform proposal, they promise, is only to help provide insurance to the “47 million uninsured” in America.

But that is a promise meant to be broken. Obama and the Democrats want any reform plan to include mandates on individuals to buy insurance and a “pay or play” provision for businesses to either provide insurance or pay a penalty tax to the government. Mandates allow the government to set standards for what kind of private insurance plan meets the requirement.

Experience at the state level shows government will mandate coverage of hundreds of specific benefits--from artificial insemination and drug rehabilitation to hair pieces for patients undergoing chemotherapy--and leave out the most promising and affordable types of health insurance coverage, such as health savings accounts.

An employer mandate similarly forces businesses to buy only the type of health insurance the government requires. Many employers will opt to pay rather than play, causing millions of people to lose their private insurance.

People who lose their private insurance will end up in a government-run insurance program, what Democrats call the “public option.” The Lewin Group projects enrollment in the public option plan would reach 131 million people in 10 years. Of those people, 119 million have private insurance today! Only 12 million people who are currently uninsured would gain insurance under the Democrats’ plan.

More Government Failure

Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to the White House, recently said the “public option” would be triggered only if there was lack of competition in the private market. But there are more than 1,000 private health insurance carriers in the U.S. How does adding one more option make the system more competitive?

Competition is stifled in health care markets today because of government regulations and subsidies, not by collusion among insurers. Innovative and entrepreneurial companies, physicians, and health care providers who want to deliver high-quality and effective patient-centered care often face strict regulations, mandates, and forced negotiations with third parties. Minute clinics and physician-owned hospitals, for example, face daunting regulatory barriers in many states.

A look at how health care is delivered in countries with “single payer” programs reveals the horrors of government-run health care. Compared to patients in the U.S., those in Great Britain and Canada face longer waiting lines, fewer physicians, less access to technology and new drugs, and rationed care. Patients are given care based on the opinions of a government panel of “experts” rather than on the advice of their own physicians. Care is routinely withheld from senior citizens and premature infants. Medical research--often out of date and subsequently contradicted by new studies--dictates which drugs are made available and which are withheld.

Government-centered reform efforts have failed in Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Tennessee. Efforts to centralize health information technology in Great Britain have collapsed. Medicare and Medicaid--America’s twin experiments with medical socialism--are bankrupt. Medicare has $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities, and people on Medicaid suffer worse outcomes than the uninsured.

A Better Way: Consumer-Driven Care

The opposite of government-run health care is consumer-driven health care: putting patients in charge of choosing their health insurance, paying for more services directly, and keeping governments, employers, and insurance bureaucracies out of their medical choices. What was once seen as just a theory of how health care could be delivered has become, in the past decade, a real-world success.

Twenty percent of the U.S. population is now covered by high-deductible health plans, meaning they are paying for more of their health care services directly rather than through a third-party insurer. Eight million Americans now have health savings accounts (HSAs), up 32 percent from January 2008. HSAs are tax-sheltered accounts into which people can deposit the money they save each year by being careful health care consumers.

Consumer-driven care keeps health care providers responsive and honest in setting prices and delivering quality. Competition leads to innovation, lower prices, and more options for consumers. Some physicians have developed cash-based primary health care systems that bypass insurance companies entirely, and some insurance companies provide 24-hour telephone access to doctors.

Opposition to Government-Run Care

The many organizations that make up the free-market movement are working together, better than ever before, to prevent government take-over of health care. Weekly in-person meetings are taking place in Washington and conference calls and collaborative efforts are occurring all across the country.

The Tea Party movement--a spontaneous and decentralized grassroots protest movement--is organizing rallies attracting hundreds and thousands of attendees who oppose bailouts, massive deficits, and increasingly the Democrats’ health care scheme. The Galen Institute, National Center for Policy Analysis, and Council for Affordable Health Insurance have ramped up their activities to reach millions of readers, television viewers, and talk radio listeners.

In recent weeks, Americans for Tax Reform hosted a health care discussion on Capitol Hill that was standing room only and filled with press cameras and reporters; the Cato Institute held two events on Capitol Hill and a conference on health care reform attracting more than 400 attendees; and Patients United Now, a project of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, is in the midst of a $3 million advertising campaign targeting key states with emotional testimonials from Canadians who were denied care and came to America.

Fifty-four organizations are now actively involved in and listed as members of the Health Care Freedom Coalition, whose members seek to make health care affordable for all Americans through a competitive, open, and transparent health care system where America’s families choose their own doctor and health care plans.

The Heartland Institute’s Role

Heartland is deeply involved in all of these efforts, helping to organize and participating in strategy meetings, Tea Parties, and other events; providing our health care experts as speakers at events organized by others; promoting the success of the movement in the pages of Health Care News; producing scores of op-eds, letters to the editor, and news releases; and reaching out to elected officials with research and commentary.

Heartland is not a lobbying organization--we do not tell elected officials how they should vote, and we don’t urge voters to tell their representatives to vote for or against pending legislation. Our role is to provide the information elected officials and voters need to make up their own minds. We advocate for free-market solutions in health care, just as we do in a wide range of other policy areas.

Heartland takes seriously the statement often attributed to Ronald Reagan, that “there is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.” Our goal is to provide the best available information to the largest audience possible, which often means helping other organizations improve their publications or enabling them to reach larger audiences.

Heartland is hosting health care roundtable discussions across the country in conjunction with rallies hosted by other organizations and in cooperation with local free-market think tank allies. Events have taken place in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, Dallas, Washington, DC, Atlanta, and Philadelphia, attracting hundreds of eager activists.

We Can Win this Battle

The enthusiasm, grassroots nature, and authenticity of our events stand in striking contrast to the phony “town hall meetings” staged by the Democrats for Obama. Even though the audiences at those events are carefully screened and many of the questions scripted in advance, support for the Democrats’ plan is lukewarm at best.

A majority of Americans think the Obama plan will increase their health care costs, and only 17 percent believe their health care costs would decrease. More Americans now oppose the Obama plan than favor it. And the president’s general approval rating is steadily falling while the percent of Americans who “strongly oppose” his policies now exceeds the percent who “strongly support” them.

We can win this battle and help the country avoid a dangerous foray into socialized medicine. Doing so requires the active participation in the public policy debate of millions of people, starting with you. Please make sure your voice is heard in this important debate over the future of your health care.

Lauren Chrissos (lchrissos@heartland.org) is vice president and Peter Fotos (pfotos@heartland.org) is director of government relations for The Heartland Institute.