Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

We all want our own health; as well as that of our families, friends, and neighbors, to be in the best possible condition for as long as possible. We cannot be tricked into thinking that health care and health insurance is the same thing. Health care is about the services provided and the attitude of the care givers. For good health care, you need sanitary conditions, adequate equipment, trained people and a degree of compassion. Compassion does not come from government; it comes from inside of good-hearted people. People will take care of non-family members either because they are altruistic, on a mission from God or they are paid well to do it.

Health insurance means that someone else is going to pay a portion of the expense you incur for the care you need or want. Health insurance is a bet that in the long run, the insurer will collect at least as much money as they will have to pay out for your care and all their other operating expenses. If everyone is healthy, the cost to participate should be relatively low. It only takes a couple of expensive episodes to drive up the average cost for the whole group.

I believe that government should have no role in health care, primarily because there is no delegation of this power to the federal government in the Constitution. They had doctors then and they had sick people then. They also had people who could not afford to pay their bills. Yet, they did not make it a federal issue. It would, of course, be very difficult to get all the way back to no government involvement, but here are some of the key things I would like to see happen:

* Allow people to shop across state lines for policies;
* Stop forcing insurers to cover everything in policies. That would allow people to select their riders and not pay for their neighbor's counseling, rehab or elective surgery;
* Continue to allow high-deductible catastrophic policies as choices;
* Individuals may buy their own insurance, regardless of the employment situation;
* Allow leftover flex-spending account balances to be rolled into a HSA-type account;
* No government centralizing of medical records, including DNA samples;
* No cap on family size;
* No federal interference with health care worker pay

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