Except when it is used as a pretext for taking over a large segment of the American economy.
Look, the problem isn't care: It is cost and delivery. Here is what needs to be done:
1. Put health care consumers in control of what they spend and how they spend it for routine/minor problems. Tax free Medical Care Savings accounts for all, funded through a sliding refundable tax credit when necessary. It wouldn't be hard to work out the details. For certain ailments, we can experiment with "means-tested and illness-tested vouchers".
2. True insurance for major med/hospitalization that kicks in when the medical account is tapped, not the pre-paid plans we all pay into now. It is much cheaper. If anything, the government could assume the role of a "re-insurer" in cases of catastrophic illness to keep the already low cost of major med insurance even lower.
Medical expenses are "nobody's money" because consumers are simply too insulated from payment of the expenses to be motivated to have any input into cost.
But this wouldn't be the occasion for yet another system of political patronage, so it would not appeal to anyone in Congress.
We need a new Congress. That is the very first step in "healthcare reform".
