Reforming Federal Health Care

Past Economic Thinking posts have reviewed health care policies and ideas for reform. The 2024 Stoa policy topic is:

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform its policy on healthcare.

Though many critics think the US has a “free market” or market-based health care system, it is a heavily regulated and federally subsidized system. The Peter G. Peterson foundation notes:

• Government insurance programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, made up 45 percent, or $1.9 trillion, of national healthcare spending.
• Private insurance programs, including employer-provided health insurance as well as plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act, accounted for 30 percent, or about $1.3 trillion.

The Cato Institute’s Michael F. Cannon, author of Recovery: A Guide to Reforming the U.S. Health Sector (October, 2023) (PDF here)

Cannon give an overview in this June 17, 2024 discussion at the Institute for Economic Affairs in London: The Myth of America’s Free Market Healthcare | IEA Book Club

There is of course much more to say about federal health care reform, but students (and parents) shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by the topic. Most health care services are local and most health care regulations and programs are local and state. State level policies and programs likely should be reformed, but the Stoa topic calls for USFG to “substantially reform its policy on healthcare.”

Homeschool debate alumni now reforming federal health care policies
A number of today’s health care policy experts were homeschooled debaters (and many attended FEE or Economic Thinking workshops).

1. Lawson Mansell, Niskanen Center
2. Jonathan Wolfson, Cicero Institute
3. Jonathan Williamson, ALEC
4. Maxford Nelson, Freedom Foundation
5. Andrew Trask, Deep Mind, OpenMined

1. Lawson Mansell,  former NCFCA debater, now Health Policy Analyst at the Niskanen Center. Lawson worked at the Milken Institute on health care issues. Lawson looks forward to sharing case ideas for the Stoa topic drawn from his health care research.

2. Jonathan Wolfson at Cicero Institute Jonathan’s mother is Diana Wolfson, coached the Chicago Charge debate club. Also, the Cicero Institute is sponsor of State Policy Network (SPN) August annual meeting in Arizona.

This August’s SPN meeting includes many sessions on health care reform, including: The AI Healthcare Revolution Coming to Every Zip Code, and Breakfast: New Horizons in Healthcare Access

3. Jonathan Williams, ALEC. Jonathan was homeschool debater in Michigan and attended an early FEE or Economic Thinking workshop. Jonathan is now Executive Vice President of Policy and Chief Economist at American Legislative Exchange. They work to network pro-market state legislators. Here Jonathan is discussing Medicaid expansion.  

4, Maxford Nelson was a Seattle area homeschool debater. Max’s research state mandates that push (federally funded) homecare workers to join labor union.For federal and state-funded or assisted health care, there is push to unionize homecare workers as condition of receiving state or federal funds. Here are other Freedom Fd. health care posts

5. Andrew Trask, Deep Mind and Openmined. Andrew was a homeschool debater in Memphis and I was in touch with him for the AI topic. He has videos and articles on his privacy preserving AI for health care. Most medical records are protected by federal regulations and can therefore not be shared restrictive security measures that limit research. Unfortunately these restrictions limit opportunities to discover common causes for illnesses.