Health Care

Note: There is extraordinary coverage of the current attempts to nationalize the U.S. healthcare system, yet few have gotten it right, in my view. First, the entire effort is unconstitutional. That should be enough to end the whole discussion - but that has not been the case. It seems our Congress feels that it may simply do whatever it wants to do (such is the hubris in D.C. these days). Secondly, if Congress were really and truly interested in "reforming healthcare," instead of advancing governmental power, they would be working to address the issues that are causing the problems. Alas, that isn't the case - which, when you think about it, is in itself a pretty damning piece of evidence, pointing straight to the heart of their treacherous machinations.

Assertion: American healthcare is among the very best in the world. We are the worldwide leader in medical innovation and advancements, and more people choose to get medical treatment in the U.S. than in any other country in the world. Where we fall short is not in our delivery of healthcare, but in the costs to the consumer. The way to reduce the cost of healthcare is to address the two major issues that keep those costs artificially inflated: Tort Reform and Interstate Insurance regulations.

Why This Is Important: When the costs of doing business increases, the costs incurred are passed along to the consumer. The same is true whether the product is pizza, Hawaiian shirts, or health care. Lawyers have been feeding at the medical malpractice trough for so long, and malpractice insurance has risen so dramatically as a result, that many doctors are leaving the field because they can no longer afford the insurance they need in order to practice. Standardize malpractice awards instead of allowing ambulance-chasing attorneys to try malpractice cases in “plaintiff-friendly” locales where jury awards are completely out-of-touch with reality. Additionally, current law allows the purchase of only those healthcare insurance plans which have been approved by the state in which the buyer resides. This allows de facto monopolies to exist within state boundaries, which results in less competition and higher prices. One of the few powers allotted to Congress is the power to regulate interstate commerce. If they want to do something useful, they should find a way to allow consumers to buy the best insurance coverage that they can afford, regardless of which state is offering it. These are the root causes of the healthcare “crisis,” and if we are to cure the patient we must address the symptoms.

Constitutional Basis: There is no constitutional basis for a nationalized healthcare system. However, Article I, Section 8, does grant to Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states, which means that it has the power to strike down what are essentially regional insurance monopolies. With regard to Tort Reform: Because exorbitant jury awards and legal fees generated by malpractice lawsuits extend, by their very nature, from the states in which the cases are tried to all states and municipalities, and such awards lead directly to increases in the costs of healthcare, we may infer that the cases are an Impost, or Duty, on healthcare itself. As such, they should therefore be regulated as such under Article I, Section 10. Section 8 also says that all Duties, Imposts and Excises “shall be uniform throughout the United States,” which means that seeking sympathetic juries outside of the state in which the harm was done, while good for the lawyers, is detrimental to the General Welfare of the American consumer.

Quote: “We should always presume the disease to be curable, until its own nature prove it otherwise.”– Peter Mere Latham