The healthcare debate that has been raging in the United States since the beginning of the summer has been filled with claims and counter claims. Truths, falsities, assaults, and mud filled attacks have been lobbied by both sides. What seems to be lost in the details of the debate is a serious discussion of a third way.
Currently both sides can agree upon the fact that the costs of healthcare delivery keep growing. Both sides would like to control those costs, but both are counting on different forms of regulation to contain those costs. Whether you are for a final government ownership of a the healthcare system or you prefer to have a third part i.e. health insurance, pay your bills, you are continuing the practice of regulation in the marketplace.
A simple question for you: how much does it cost you, the healthcare consumer, to visit the doctor?
$5?
$10?
Free?
The real answer is unknown. Why? The marketplace does not actually communicate that price. It does not communicate the price because of the overly cumbersome regulation of the healthcare marketplace by insurance companies, the federal government through medicare/medicaid, and the inability of physicians to advertise price. Regulation of any marketplace that removes the final consumer of the product from knowing the actual price adds substantial costs beyond the value of the services rendered. Therefore the current system of regulation of pricing by the insurance companies or the possible complete government takeover of the healthcare marketplace will not prevent costs from continuing to rise. Simply put, overly complicated regulation of any marketplace breeds inefficiency, poor quality, and high prices resulting in costs to all involved.
The third solution that no one, in our knowledge, has actively talked about is free up the healthcare marketplace to compete on price. The deregulation of every healthcare dollar being controlled by third parties and given back to the patient. Allow the marketplace to compete on price, quality, and value.
We are sure, like the legal profession, in some locales this may result in gaudy advertisements from physicians and practices. That comes with the competition of ideas. What the deregulation will really do is allow for the communication of price and costs to the marketplace. Over a long term the price of services will go down and the over testing, drugging, and coding of procedures will subside.
Now we understand that this is an overt simplification, but it is a mode of reform that no one is talking about. Our question to everyone who has a stake in this reform is why not?
Erroin A. Martin 
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