Om Pandya, Staff Writer
Ideology: Libertarian | Writing From: New York University

Reforming health care has become the top priority for the current administration, which is taking on the challenge despite a colossal and still growing price tag, along with severe disapproval from the right. The reasons they give for promoting government reform to the current system are undeniably hard to ignore. Millions of uninsured Americans are at risk to spend their entire savings and more on a freak medical emergency. Millions of insured Americans cannot get the health care they need because their insurance provider rejects their claim. Americans as a whole spend a much higher percentage of their GDP on healthcare and have a lower life expectancy than many European nations. The health care issue has become a crisis in the public eye, and like all crises, we rely on the government without looking at the alternatives.

De-regulation of health care has not been discussed as much by mainstream America, mainly because it just sounds scary. We like the comfort of walking into a doctor’s office and knowing he passed an accredited medical school and is licensed by the state, or knowing that the greedy insurance company has someone to keep them in check. Also, since most of the regulation occurs at the state level, national de-regulation will only help up to a certain extent. There are however, a few simple reforms that might help to lower the price of health insurance or health care with minimal negative consequence.

1. Allow health insurance to be sold across state lines.
This is probably the most discussed cure when it comes to free market health care reforms, and probably one of the simplest to implement. Since 2005, conservatives have pushed to allow, for example, a New Hampshire resident (who pays around 5,000 a year for an individual plan) to buy a plan from Kansas or any other state with cheaper health insurance. This has the effect of increasing competition between insurance companies and reducing costs.

2. Legalize organ markets.
As of October 2, 2009, there are 104,109 people on the organ transplant waiting list. From January to June of 2009, there were only 14,191 transplants. Organs are hard to come by, basically since the only price you can sell them for is zero. Legalizing kidney and liver markets, where a live donor can sell one kidney or a portion of the liver, will reduce the waiting list drastically and give those 104,109 people at least a chance at life. Legalizing cadaveric markets, where a healthy person can sign away the rights to their organs after death, or an unclaimed or will-less body can be harvested for organs would be even better. The only nation in which this is legal right now, ironically enough, is Iran, where there is no waitlist for a kidney transplant.

3. Give nurses and physician assistants greater freedom to treat patients.
Currently, insurances companies are being forced to raise rates based on the fact that Americans are being forced to go to the doctor more than ever, many times for a minor reason. They are usually given a lightning-quick examination, more often then not a prescription, and a hefty bill. Though not all situations require a trip to your doctor. Preventive screening and diagnostics tests, which make up almost a fifth of doctors visits, can be handled by a nurse practitioner or physicians assistant for a fraction of the price. Coughs, sore throats, or skin rashes can be examined by the nurse practitioner and if need be referred to the doctor. Currently, however, physician’s assistants in all states and nurse practitioners in most are prevented from working independent of a physician, leaving going to a fully licensed doctor the only option for someone with a sore throat or skin rash. Let the PA’s and NP’s have more leeway when treating patients with minor afflictions and leave the doctor’s time free for major medical procedures.

Of course, we would still be a long way from efficiency in health care even with the reforms above. Real reform would require people who are older and wiser than us within states and the federal government to comprehensively review their regulations and scrap or alter them if need be. Rather than sticking to the creed that de-regulation solves all problems, we need to open-mindedly explore other options such as tort regulation and reform. Health care is turning into the perfect crisis for the government to increase its size and power yet again. We have to resist by reason and strong alternatives rather than accusations of socialism and death panels.