Health Care and the LIbertarian Party:

[kitkat24]

The Libertarian Party's Legislative Program

Health Care & Health Costs

Twenty years ago, health care was a $42 billon per year industry. Today, health care costs Americans more than $2 billion per day, more than 14% of our Gross Domestic Product. These soaring costs are putting enormous financial pressures on American businesses, forcing thousands of small businesses to reduce or drop benefits for their employees. Moreover, health care costs are an increasing burden to already strained family budgets. At the same time, nearly 35 million Americans lack health insurance.

The only health care reforms that are likely to have a significant impact on America's health care problems are those that draw on the strength of the free market. The Libertarian Party has developed a comprehensive proposal for health care reform that will reduce health care costs, while extending access to care.

Our five-point plan is as follows:

Establish Medical Savings Accounts. One key to controlling health care costs is strengthening the role of the individual health care consumer. As part of this process, an individual should be exempted from taxes on money deposited in a Medical Savings Account (MSA), in the same way that he currently pays no taxes on deposits to an IRA. Money could be withdrawn from an MSA without penalty to pay medical expenses. This would increase consumer responsibility, while increasing access and controlling costs.

Restructure tax policy. As a second consumer-based reform, taxes should be restructured to establish equity in the treatment of employer-provided health insurance, individually purchased health insurance, and out-of-pocket medical expenses. All health care expenditures should be 100% tax deductible. This will add a measure of fairness to current tax policies that penalize the self-employed, part-time workers, and employees of small businesses, while subsidizing health care for the most affluent in our society.

Deregulate the health care industry. There should be a thorough examination of the extent to which government policies are responsible for rising health costs and the unavailability of health care services. America can help lower health care costs and expand health care access by taking immediate steps to deregulate the health care industry, including elimination of mandated benefits, repeal of the Certificate-of-Need program, and expansion of the scope of practice for non-physician health professionals.

Replace the FDA. The Food and Drug Administration is clearly an unnecessary burden on the American health care system. There is no evidence that agency offers Americans any real protection, but there is massive evidence that it is causing great harm -- driving up health care costs and depriving millions of Americans of the medical care they need. The agency should be abolished and replaced with voluntary certification by a private-sector organization, similar to the way Underwriters Laboratories certifies electrical appliances.

Privatize Medicare and Medicaid.The current Medicare and Medicaid systems have clearly failed. Costs are skyrocketing. Patients are receiving second rate care. And, providers are being shortchanged. The time is ripe for drastic reform. The federal government should begin to restructure the system to give Medicaid and Medicare recipients more flexibility to purchase private health insurance.

[NurseHardee]

This is just a ridiculous plan. It shows how Libertarian ideology, with all its good intentions, usually offers as solutions totally confused nonsense. The real problem with our health care system is that the private sector is running already running the entire show, not the public sector. The private sector (business community) is able to use the government to legislate a boondoggle system that maximizes its profitmaking to the hilt.

The Libertarian Party constantly wants to tell the government of the corporations to butt out and let the corporations run things on their own. Problem for the Libertarians, is that the major corporations do not want to do that; will not do that; and that is simply the nature of large capitalist enterprise, to use big government for their benefit. Libertariansim is constantly trying to make out that the US government is hindering business, though. Not at all. It is aiding business, and hurting the consumer and worker. And the Libertarinas love business and will only talk up a storm, but not oppose it on behalf of workers and consumers.

Putting forward a plan to eliminate the public funding and have people investing in their medical care as if it were a lottery ticket purchase, or TV purchase is pathetic. Why not go out and privatize the police, road building, military, and airport and stadium building that gobbles up pulbic tax payers money first of all? How about privatizing sidewalks? Want one... build it in front of your property, if not... don't. Privatize public water supply, garbage service, etc. No garbage pickup or drinking water pipes in your area? Sorry, the consumer didn't pay an adequate fee, Bro! Got cancer? Too bad, you invested your individual funds badly. Too bad you are beginning to smell. It's not the government's job to fund you when you were irresponsible.

Just an idiot extreme of excessive destructive individualistic minded nonsense, here from the Libertarians.

Nurse Hardee

[kitkat24]

This is just a ridiculous plan. It shows how Libertarian ideology, with all its good intentions, usually offers as solutions totally confused nonsense. The real problem with our health care system is that the private sector is running already running the entire show, not the public sector. The private sector (business community) is able to use the government to legislate a boondoggle system that maximizes its profitmaking to the hilt.

The Libertarian Party constantly wants to tell the government of the corporations to butt out and let the corporations run things on their own. Problem for the Libertarians, is that the major corporations do not want to do that; will not do that; and that is simply the nature of large capitalist enterprise, to use big government for their benefit. Libertariansim is constantly trying to make out that the US government is hindering business, though. Not at all. It is aiding business, and hurting the consumer and worker. And the Libertarinas love business and will only talk up a storm, but not oppose it on behalf of workers and consumers.

Putting forward a plan to eliminate the public funding and have people investing in their medical care as if it were a lottery ticket purchase, or TV purchase is pathetic. Why not go out and privatize the police, road building, military, and airport and stadium building that gobbles up pulbic tax payers money first of all? How about privatizing sidewalks? Want one... build it in front of your property, if not... don't. Privatize public water supply, garbage service, etc. No garbage pickup or drinking water pipes in your area? Sorry, the consumer didn't pay an adequate fee, Bro! Got cancer? Too bad, you invested your individual funds badly. Too bad you are beginning to smell. It's not the government's job to fund you when you were irresponsible.

Just an idiot extreme of excessive destructive individualistic minded nonsense, here from the Libertarians.

Nurse Hardee

The Constitution says that we are to provide for the common defense: e.g. Military.

The Constitution does not say that we are to provide free healthcare insurance to everybody.

I do not know more than our founding fathers, and I do not think that we should change the constitution.

Kitkat