With the recent debate over healthcare-specifically the Democrats attempt to expand the SCHIP program-it’s important for Republicans to articulate their own vision of healthcare reform. It isn’t enough to just point out the problems with the Democrats big government approach (such as crowding out private insurance). Mayor Giuliani does just that in a stellar piece in today’s Boston Globe:
We need to begin by bringing fairness to the tax treatment of healthcare. The current tax system penalizes millions — including the rising ranks of the self-employed and 40 percent of employees at small firms — who pay for insurance on their own and receive no tax benefit.
Americans without employer-based insurance, or those who would rather have individual coverage, should enjoy the same tax benefits as the 175 million Americans with employer-based coverage.
There will be many issues in the upcoming presidential campaign, but healthcare should be a particularly important one. It provides a clear picture of a candidate’s view of the role of government: do they think that the best way to fix our healthcare system is to allow the government to swallow up the entire sector, or to embrace more competition and individual control?