Kansas Seeks Free-Market Health Care Reform

If conservatives do not offer market solutions to solve our health care problem, then I fear we will have a nationalized health care system. President Bush tried to move in that direction but did not have the political capital to achieve any success. This is an interesting article. I am reaching no conclusions on the specifics of this plan, but find it reassuring that someone is looking at market solutions.


THE HEARTLAND INSTITUTE
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Kansas Seeks Free-Market Health Care Reform
Author: Erica Schatz
Published by: The Heartland Institute
Published in: Health Care NewsPublication date: June 2007
A free-market health care plan promising less government interference and no new taxes could be on the horizon in Kansas.
KanCare, created by newly elected state Rep. Jeff Colyer (R-Overland Park), is billed as an alternative to the traditional big-government, complicated plans already in existence. Colyer is a medical doctor and member of the state's House Health and Human Services Committee.
The plan is made up of a series of bills that will take several years to pass. In March, the House passed by voice vote H.R. 6009, which charges the state bank commissioner with educating state-chartered banks about health savings accounts (HSAs).
This is only one aspect of the plan; the legislature did not have time to consider any other parts before the session ended in April.
"Right now the health care system in Kansas is like a wobbly, three-legged stool--divided unevenly between growing government programs (23 percent), shrinking private health insurance coverage (65 percent), and the uninsured (10.9 percent)," Colyer explained in a statement on his Web site. "We strengthen the wobbly three-legged stool [in]to a table with four sturdy legs."
KanCare's four parts are:
Combine tax credits with market competition to automatically reduce costs.
Shift Kansans from Medicaid to private insurance plans, with comparable affordability.
Allow consumers to set aside money for health-related expenses in savings accounts, and offer wellness incentives.
Improve charity care through free or low-cost clinics.
Using Market Competition
For the full story: http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=21158

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