The new year is a time to make resolutions to improve your life over the next 12 months. This time around, there’s a new boss in the White House and the Republicans have control of Congress. So though I usually don’t feel I can realistically add big sweeping changes to my list — a tactic often likelier to yield failure and frustration than success — I am going to dream a little and call for boldness on top of no-brainer reforms.
An easy fix would be to lower the rate as much as possible and move to an origin-based territorial regime — all paid for by cutting spending and reforming entitlements. (I told you I would dare to dream.)
Though the health insurance system is important, lawmakers should not overlook another issue that’s just as important, if not more so: how to unleash waves of disruptive innovation that can bring health care costs down and increase quality. To foster such change, we need to give health care providers and innovators wide leeway to innovate and experiment. This requires us to loosen the coercive grip of government agencies (Food and Drug Administration, I am thinking of you) and special interests.
Currently, our laws, regulations and institutions constantly get in the way of unleashing the kind of technological revolution that transformed other industries, such as information technology. In his “Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care” and other writings, my colleague Robert Graboyes makes a passionate case for permissionless innovation in health care. Lawmakers should listen to him.
But things have gotten worse since President Barack Obama took office. As documented by Diane Katz and James Gattuso of The Heritage Foundation, the unparalleled increase in regulatory burdens since 2009 brings the regulatory costs to an astonishing $108 billion a year. Imagine the incredible decline in economic freedom and individual liberty that resulted from this regulation spree.
There is so much more to do, such as repealing Dodd-Frank and reforming Medicare and Social Security. But I will keep that on my wish list for next year. Until then, happy new year.
Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
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