No Obamacare replacement

Even with President Trump seemingly initiating a new political order, it appears that leftists are still getting their way in perpetuating the administrative state. So far as I can discern, the Republican Obamacare replacement plans still involve the federal government intervening in markets. I recently heard Sen. Rand Paul on Fox News and I was expecting him to promote the federal government getting out of health care, but instead, he was just promoting his version of market control.

President Reagan's axiom that "Government is not the solution, it's the problem" still applies. It is a near-universal truth that government intervention in markets produces suboptimum results, but it seems the needle has moved so far to the left that the right isn't even considering no-market-interference solutions.

We should replace Obamacare with ... nothing! In the first place, it is not a constitutionally enumerated power. Secondly, the whole notion that employers provide health care was a result of wage controls during WWII. What Trump and Congress should do is eliminate all federal employee health benefits. This will give natural market forces a kick-start and encourage employers to do the same. There is no better way to drive costs down and increase quality of care. And hopefully the states will enact medical service vouchers for the truly indigent to be spent on the market without government interference.

David Spackman

Tremonton

Credit: By David Spackman For the Deseret News