5 steps toward a fresh approach to health care reform

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As the cost of living continues to be a crucial concern for voters, there’s an urgent need for candidates to present viable solutions for making health care both affordable and accessible. Here are five fresh principles for health care reform that can resonate across party lines.

Address root causes, not just symptoms. One of the biggest reasons major Washington-led health care reforms have failed to lower health care costs is because they focus on health insurance instead of health care, and very little on health itself.

ObamaCare and the Inflation Reduction Act are perfect examples. Every year, these programs give more money to health insurance companies to offset the costs of higher premiums for people with larger incomes. A better approach is to fund American patients, not health insurance companies, by giving them direct control over the subsidy they qualify for and let them use it to buy the care and coverage that works best for them.

To further stop this doom loop, lawmakers must shift their focus from merely subsidizing insurance premiums to addressing the underlying issues of high health care prices and excessive demand. Lower prices and lower demand will lead to lower premiums.

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