If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then our nation must be insane. This newspaper’s editorial board, our Congress, the president, our neighbors and friends continue to demand more and more government in health care.

Our government’s involvement in health care has been increasing since the early 1960s. How’s that been working out for us? Many conservative think tanks and politicians have advocated for unleashing capitalism to lower prices and increase services.

We seem to think as a nation we should be able to enslave doctors and other medical professionals to work for us as a public service. Don’t these people also have the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness? Should we expect them to provide services to the general public just because we exist?

Do insurance markets and governments have a right to tell them how much they can earn or what they should bill for their labor? We want to attract more people to the medical profession not less.

The nation should issue health savings accounts at birth as Dr. Ben Carson, Republican candidate for president, has proposed.

This would give us more control as consumers and would force the medical professionals to offer more competitive pricing while destroying the government bureaucracy. Most of us would simply pay cash for everyday services and use private insurance to pay for major medical issues. That’s how insurance was originally designed to work; it was never meant to pay for everyday expenses.

We also should create a national umbrella insurance and have all citizens contribute something to it. Any good plan needs to offer liberty, freedom and profits for the those who want practice medicine without forcing them to hire a small army of staff to manage all the government bureaucracy.

John Hopkins

Manchester


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