Free Market Health Care

John Stossel is back with another great article on health care. This time, he takes aim at the myth that the free market doesn't work in that industry.

His first example is a laser eye surgeon, Dr. Brian Bonanni. Bonanni's office is open Saturdays, he e-mails his patients and gives them his cell-phone number, and he strives to be available 24 hours a day to answer patient questions. Sound like your doctor? Of course not.

That's because Bonanni gets paid directly by his patients, and they have the freedom to shop around.

"I can't get away with not telling the patient how much exactly it's going to cost," Bonanni says. "No one would put up with it. And the difference of a hundred dollars sometimes makes their decision for them." He has to compete for his patients' business. One result of that is lower prices. And while the procedure got cheaper, it also got better. Today's lasers are faster and more precise.

Bonanni is far from alone. A growing number of doctors refuse insurance, and actually publish their low costs to bring in customers.

Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a health-policy research organization, explains how these clinics thrive: "They're figuring how to do something faster, better, cheaper! They're responding to consumer demand because they see that they might make some money on this."

One way they do that is to utilize programs like Wal-Mart's $4 pills. Regardless, it's a win-win situation, because the patient retains control over their health care, and the doctors don't have to worry about beauracratic nightmares and insurance paperwork. It's the free market system at its finest, and do you know what the key is?

Less government.

It's the anti-Hillary health care plan, and it would be better for us all.

There's my two cents.