Solving the problem of the uninsured

Reform of the United States health care system is less complicated than at first might appear. The building blocks of an ideal system are already in place. The federal government already generously subsidizes private health insurance and safety net care. What is wrong with the current system is that there are too many perverse incentives. One could reasonably argue that government is doing more harm than good, and that a laissez faire policy is better than what is now in place. Nonetheless, if government is going to be involved in a major way in the health care system, perverse incentives should be replaced with neutral ones. At a minimum, government policy should be neutral between private insurance and the social safety net, never spending more on free care for the uninsured than it spends to encourage the purchase of private insurance. Careful application of this principle would go a long way toward creating an ideal health care system.