I believe Obamacare should be repealed completely. Next, I believe those currently using Obamacare insurance, should be grandfathered into temporary equivalent insurance programs, supported by the government. Next, I believe the healthcare market should be restructured to maximize competition. This should be done by the government:

1) Mandating price transparency throughout the healthcare industry.

2) Incentivizing companies to innovate and lower healthcare costs - using tax breaks, zero or low interest loans, partial doctor loans forgiveness programs, etc.

3) Pushing for the mass adoption of Health Savings Accounts in lieu of health insurance, that consumers can use to purchase non-catastrophic healthcare products and services.

4) Incentivizing health insurance to be used only for catastrophic events.

5) Encouraging consumers to shop around for the best prices in healthcare products and services, with their Health Savings Accounts.

6) Allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines.

The above should have a significant, sustained effect at lowering the cost of healthcare, affecting everyone including Medicaid and Medicare benefit recipients, those who don’t currently have health insurance, and those who currently enjoy the best health insurance.

Everyone who wants a Health Savings Account should be able to get one. Employers should be able to make employee deductions into them like 401K accounts. The poor should be able to get contributions into them from the government. The above should lower the cost of healthcare for everyone, including those on Medicaid and Medicare. Most people would have Health Savings Accounts in tandem with catastrophic health insurance, where the former is used to take care of most healthcare expenses.

The above changes should result in scenarios for example where when a person looks up a hospital or other medical facility’s web site, he gets to see an itemization of the prices of the various products and services offered by the medical facility, in addition to other information.

Those who suffer from pre-existing conditions, should enjoy price savings like everyone else, from the above suggestions. Further incentives from the government should be offered to medical facilities, to lower healthcare costs for this specific group of people. So instead of the government trying to figure out solutions to lowering the costs of those having pre-existing conditions, the free market solves the problem. The government should also consider aiding people with pre-existing conditions, with contributions to their Health Savings Accounts and catastrophic health insurance plans, if the above free market efforts are not enough. Unlike Obamacare which destabilizes the market by insisting that insurance plans cover those with and without preexisting conditions alike, the above aggressively uses free market pressures to lower the costs of those with preexisting conditions, while providing supplemental coverage from the government, if necessary.

I believe the above will make the healthcare market freer than it was before Obamacare, while lowering costs in a sustained way, which should lead to an even more vibrant, innovative market than that seen throughout the history of the sector. Medicaid and other government contributions may expand to help cover more people who seek coverage, but because of free market pressures, actual costs to the government would be mitigated, and could actually go down.