The worst kind of medicine

Which of the following scenarios has the best chance of happening?

A) The Detroit Lions winning February's Super Bowl.

B) Clark County firefighters accepting a reduced pay raise.

C) Me successfully replacing your home's entire plumbing system.

D) The Affordable Health Care for America Act actually making health care better, more accessible and more affordable for Americans.

The correct answer is C. I'm not terribly handy, but unlike the Democrats running Washington, I'd actually listen to trained professionals with an understanding of the mess I'd gotten myself into.

This weekend, the House of Representatives was poised to pass the 2,000-page abomination The Wall Street Journal dubbed "the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced."

Health care reform was supposed to achieve two core goals. First, get the 10 million to 15 million Americans who are just getting by and can't afford health insurance into some kind of plan. Second, slow down the rapid, unsustainable increases in health care costs. Making it easier and more affordable for these people to see a doctor and buy medication, rather than end up as nonpaying emergency room patients, would lead to improved outcomes, less uncompensated care and less cost-shifting, the thinking went.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the anti-capitalist ideologues who gave her power had no intention of limiting themselves to this simple task or listening to economists. Seizing full control of the health care industry has been a dream of Democrats for decades. Government-run medicine is the ultimate means of redistributing wealth, nurturing dependent constituencies and grabbing power.

So instead of breaking down the government-created barriers to affordable health insurance, the Pelosi plan establishes new ones.

Instead of reducing or slowing the growth of health care costs, the Pelosi plan creates runaway increases.

Instead of improving access to health insurance, the Pelosi plan will drive employers to drop coverage, run insurers out of business and send citizens (and illegal immigrants) scurrying to the bankrupt federal government for medical and financial security.

Worse, Pelosi and her charges have been lying to Americans since day one about the consequences of their legislation. Like most bills, it does the exact opposite of its name -- it makes health care more expensive and less flexible than it is today. Unlike most bills, it will have a profound effect on the wallet and well-being of every person in the country.

Two things in this political drama have astonished me most.

First, an overhaul of the health care industry is not the most pressing issue facing this country. James Carville said it best: "It's the economy, stupid." The Obama administration is racking up previously unimaginable budget deficits, the national jobless rate is above 10 percent and climbing, and private-sector industries (the ones that haven't been bailed out) are fighting for survival in an economy that will be reshaped around huge decreases in discretionary spending. Cash-strapped local and state governments, bailed out by Obama and Congress earlier this year, can't count on more federal welfare.

And yet the lunatics in Washington are writing billions and billions of dollars in tax increases on industry and the wealthy and raising costs for one-sixth of the economy. Far from helping taxpayers, Pelosi and Co. are kicking them while they're down. How does this help put people back to work?

Second, since when has Congress ever gotten anything right? Everything federal lawmakers touch these days turns to raw sewage. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Bank bailouts? "Cash for Clunkers"? Incompetence is a bipartisan endeavor. These idiots make Homer Simpson look like Warren Buffett.

The long-term consequences of undermining private insurers through a government-run "public option" are pretty easy to see. As Congress inevitably spends more and more on health care outside of the already-unsustainable Medicare and Medicaid programs, its debt and interest obligations eventually will cause the Treasury to seize like an engine that has burned through its last drop of oil. When the money runs short, the rationing starts.

What should be done instead?

This recession has taught us, once and for all, that health insurance should be de-linked from employment. Americans should be able to buy a policy that follows them anywhere and not have to worry about losing coverage when they lose a job. And individuals should enjoy the tax advantages enjoyed by employers who offer health benefits -- Congress should let us deduct the cost of insurance on our income taxes, and let us use health savings accounts to pay for all our medical care tax-free.

Next, eliminate the hundreds and hundreds of state mandates that inflate insurance premiums. Nevada, for example, ranks 11th in the nation with 52 separate coverage mandates. If the United States were one big, open health insurance market, the competition between insurers would drive down costs quickly and enable consumers to create their policies a la carte. The Pelosi plan, by contrast, moves away from risk-based insurance by banning low-cost, disaster policies and pushes us even closer to pre-paid health care.

Impose limits on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice judgments. End the lawsuit lottery that sends billions of health care dollars into trial lawyers' pockets.

If there is a role for the federal government to play here, it would be directing insurers to create risk pools for people with pre-existing and catastrophic conditions.

It's insane that the Affordable Health Care for America Act has a 10-year price tag of more than $1 trillion. How is that affordable? If the goal of health care reform is to reduce costs, then it shouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. It takes less government, not more.

Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.