Yesterday I stumbled upon a simple means of health care reform. I asked, "How much?"

I need a simple out patient procedure done. Nothing to worry about but something that is bugging me. I called up my doctor and asked, "How much?" The first response was, "Doesn't your insurance pay for it?" The staff had to dig to find out. It took ten minutes to find the answer. It turned out to be $300 to $500.

Image buying anything else that cost that much, like a small television for instance. Image going to the store, looking at televisions. You are inevitably going to ask, "How much." You are not going to find the staff caught off guard, scrambling to find the price for you. Actually, you will not even have to ask because the price will be displayed prominently. More than that, the store will mail you fliers advertising the price of televisions that week.

Insurance has single handedly raised the cost of health care because it has removed from the customer the single most important weapon in combating higher cost: true price. In health care, there is no incentive for the patient (or customer, as I like to call him) to lower cost because he is not rewarded by lower costs. His insurance premium costs the same whether he goes with the $300 procedure or the $500 procedure. There is no incentive for the doctor to lower cost because he is not rewarded by lower costs. He does not gain or loose customers as he lowers or raises his prices.

Health insurance as it exists now is not the answer; it is the problem. It should not be called health insurance to begin with. No other insurance works the same way. Your home owners insurance does not pay for light bulbs. Your flood insurance does not pay for mopping the kitchen. Your automobile insurance does not pay for oil changes. In every other market in which there is insurance, the market forces of price and shopping are still in affect. It is only in the health industry that these critical forces are removed.

Insurance is the problem, so it is only natural that the solution proposed by Democrats is more insurance. Democrats always prescribe more of the problem as the solution. In education, Democrats want more government schools. In energy, they want more government regulation. In national defense, they want more appeasement of our enemies.

We need a real Republican president this fall who believes in free enterprise. We have the potential to solve the health care problem and make our market the envy of the world. Alas, we also have the potential to hand over ten percent of our economy to the socialists to ruin. It certainly makes for an interesting year.