posted June 07, 2019 08:14 AM            

The key to fixing health care is to focus on employer-based care. Most people receive health insurance through their employer anyway. The best way to ensure that everyone is insured is to focus on that. We need to make it easier for employers to provide insurance. Allowing insurance companies to cross state lines would certainly do that. Insurance is governed by state law. We need to modify that through federal legislation. We don't do that through requiring anyone to purchase it. We lower the costs through capitalism and competition. Health care is important to people. They will make their employment decisions based on health insurance. As the economy continues to grow, companies will have to offer better packages to compete with other employers and attract talent.

Obamacare was a disaster, but it wasn't a complete disaster. It did three things right: (1) It changed the narrative to a preventative care health model (that was a revolutionary idea). (2) It got us talking about pre-existing conditions. (3) It got us talking about keeping children on their parents' insurance plans through college.

While capitalism can solve our nation's health care crisis, it needs a gentle nudge from the federal government. I'm all for the free market. But health care is an exception. Unlike most supply and demand economics, health care is price inelastic to demand. What that means is that no matter how high prices rise, the demand stays high. People will pay anything not to die. For example, diabetics need insulin to live. There is no reason that other countries should get to pay $10 for the same insulin that Americans have to pay hundreds of dollars for. The government needs to intercede and put a stop to that. State governments are already capping insulin to $100 a month. That's just one example where legislation needs to rein in things.