Improving American Health Care: What Should Be Done

1. Individuals, not their employers should own their health care policies, in the same way they own auto, homeowners, life and disability insurance. This would help make health insurance portable in the event people change or lose their jobs.
2. Employer deductibility should be replaced with individual tax deductions or credits.
3. State and federal mandates should be sharply reduced allowing people to purchase what they need, not what some politician or bureaucrat wants them to buy.
4. Health insurers should be required to allow individuals to pool their purchasing power in order to lower rates.
5. Health insurance companies should be allowed to sell their products across state lines, increasing competition and lowering premiums.
6. Meaningful tort reform must be enacted. According to a recent Harvard study, 40% of medical malpractice lawsuits are without merit, wasting $200 billion per year.
7. Waste, fraud and abuse in medicare and medicaid must be aggressively pursued. Over $100 billion each year is lost to illegal activities.
8. Providers should not be required by law to provide free health care to those illegally in the U.S.
9. Expand Health Savings Accounts. We need to turn 305 million Americans into medical consumers.
10. Reward healthy lifestyles with financial incentives.