Swiss Model for Health Care?
In today’s Albuquerque Journal, economist Micha Gisser (a senior fellow w/ RGF), discusses a few ways in which our health care system might be reformed with an emphasis on both free markets and “universal” health care. The basic idea of Swiss health care is to generally free Americans of some of the most absurd and silly regulations — by allowing, for example, individuals to receive the same tax benefits as their employers do and by purchasing care across state lines — and to demand that each American purchase a very basic plan to cover emergencies.
Gisser makes many good points in his column. Given the choice between the Swiss model and what Obama is proposing, I’d certainly go for the Swiss model. There are a few major questions before we impose the Swiss model here: 1) how do we ensure that everyone has health care and enforce that? After all America is a much bigger, more open society than Switzerland 2) How do we ensure that bureaucrats and politicians don’t demand larger and more ambitious “basic” coverage as happened in Massachusetts with its “connector” plan?