Should the U.S. Have Universal Healthcare?

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The current problems in American health care have been caused by decades of government interference in the free markets for health care and health insurance.  The problems of rising costs, long waits, and unhappy patients and providers are more reminiscent of the long bread lines in the former USSR, not of capitalist systems.

In contrast, note that in the most free (i.e., least regulated) sectors of American medicine, such as LASIK eye surgery, we see the classic pattern of falling costs and increasing quality that we take for granted with free market economics.  And this is precisely because such procedures and services are not regarded as "rights" that must be somehow guaranteed by the government.

Free market reforms, such as eliminating onerous guaranteed-issue insurance laws, eliminating mandated benefits, allowing patients to purchase Health Savings Accounts  for routine expenses, and allowing patients to purchase catastrophic-only insurance policies across state lines could reduce costs over 50%, making health insurance available to millions who cannot currently afford it.

Rather than imposing more government restrictions on the market (more of the same that caused the problem in the first place), we should loosen those restrictions and allow the free market to work in health care, just as it's worked with computers and cell phones.