As a progressive I think it is time to consider starting over on health care reform. We can start by removing the antitrust protection enjoyed by health care insurers in this country. Removing the antitrust protection will immediately create competition among the 1,300 companies that provide this type of insurance.
Competition between these insurers is the common-sense approach to reining in costs today and for future generations of Americans. Competition leads to lower prices,innovation in the marketplace and better service levels to the customer. Without their antitrust protection these companies will be more willing to negotiate and negotiate in good faith with the American people. The legislation to do this will give every member of Congress the opportunity to show whom they support — “big insurance” or the American people.
The second thing we need to do to reform health care and lower costs for the American people is to allow the importation of pharmaceuticals from Canada. This measure alone would save the American people $80 billion each year. As for the public option that we hear so many people talk about let us hold that in reserve until after we have eliminated the antitrust exemption for insurers and allowed the importation of medicines from Canada. If after taking these two very simple steps to reform health care and those steps falling short of our goals of reducing costs and creating more access, then we can leverage the power of a potential public option to gain other concessions from a health care industry that has for years abused the very people it seeks to care for.
Randy Willis
Anderson
