Hsieh LTE in USA Today

The July 23, 2008 edition of USA Today has printed my LTE critical of mandatory insurance:

Reform health care

Paul Hsieh, M.D., Co-founder, Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine - Sedalia, Colo.

Mandatory insurance does not solve our underlying health care problem, which is government interference in the free market. This approach has already been tried in Massachusetts and has led to long waits, skyrocketing costs and frustrated patients ("Individual health policies leave many in the lurch," Cover story, News, Thursday).

Instead of government-imposed "universal health care," America needs free market health reforms -- reforms such as eliminating mandatory insurance benefits, repealing laws that forbid purchasing health insurance across state lines, and allowing individuals to use health savings accounts for routine expenses and low cost, catastrophic-only insurance for major expenses.

Such reforms would respect individual rights, allow patients to choose from the best offerings from all 50 states, lower costs and make health insurance available to many who currently cannot afford it.