It is an audacious step toward Clintoncare . I am the first to acknowledge the serious flaws in today's health-care system. While America leads the world in excellent medical drugs, devices, and doctors, and while insurance plans are improving every day thanks to market forces, the fact is we have real problems in our health system. Government policy, both state and federal, makes insurance unaffordable for millions. The tax break for health insurance discriminates against the unemployed and small-business workers.
Many employers offer their workers no real choice of plans or doctors.
And of course we have all heard about the bad health plans, the ones that deny services in violation of contract, or that let remote bureaucrats with cook books impose medical decisions over the advice of trained, on-site health professionals. I do not know how many of these accusations are true, but even one is too many if it is true and preventable. So this problem demands our serious attention. But in trying to improve, we have an obligation not to destroy. We should serve the good of patients and consumers, and not the financial interests of certain industries or trade associations.