Let States Lead on Health Care

The states have a handle on health care reform, write Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry, and the federal government urgently needs to take a lesson from them. “Texas, for example, has adopted approaches to controlling health-care costs while improving choice, advancing quality of care and expanding coverage” write the former US House speaker and current Texas governor. But they see a federal initiative failing.

“The Democratic health-care proposals do nothing to expand choice, lower costs and empower patients,” they write in the Washington Post. The plans would “add to our already crushing burden of national debt” and “ultimately reduce the quality of US medical care.” Ditch “centrally planned, debt-financed, one-size-fits-all solutions and work cooperatively with those laboratories of innovation known as states," they urge. "Otherwise, we'll end up with a one-size-hurts-all situation.” (More Newt Gingrich stories.)