29 JAN 07 / "The President's Health Insurance Plan"

During last week's State of the Union Address, President Bush outlined his proposed plan to help more Americans afford health insurance.

The president is right to make the issue a priority, but his proposal is too complicated and will help too few people. The problem is much larger than his fix. Government-run health care is not the answer either, of course.

Democrats are clamoring for a single-payer solution because they just want the government to lift yet another weight off their shoulders, but Americans must learn to bear the burdens of life if we are to continue to thrive as a nation. The health care industry is 16 percent of the U.S. economy and the federal government should not control such a large portion of spending.

If a product is free, people demand too much of it -- human nature being what it is. And rationing, long waiting periods, and too few medical professionals are just a few of the problems single-payer countries like Britain and Canada are currently experiencing.

There are alternatives like tort reform to consider. A big reason health costs are through the roof is that doctors must now pay exorbitant medical malpractice insurance to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits. The president has sponsored legislation in Congress to set parameters around how much a suit can be worth to a plaintiff, but the trial lawyer lobby keeps foiling passage of the bill. And now with Democrats in control, there's little chance of passage.

It is worth noting that the president's critics are wrong to assert that 47 million Americans go without health care. Millions of citizens and non-citizens without health insurance are treated in the United States every year

An because such a large percentage of American hospitals and community hospitals already treat the uninsured, they should be directly reimbursed at a standard and fair rate by the federal government for the services they render. This, at least, is a more direct method of compensation that doesn't involve an additional layer of government bureaucracy.