May 24, 2006 3:35PM 

# Abusing the Idea of Free-Market Health Care Reform 

By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

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At about 6 pm yesterday, I received an invitation to a Heritage Foundation event titled, “[Another Step forward for Free-Market Health Care Reform](http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev052306b.cfm).” The event was anything but.

Heritage hosted Rep. Mike Rogers (R‑MI), who [proposes](http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h3757ih.txt.pdf) to allow health savings accounts in Medicaid. In the book *[Healthy Competition](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1930865813/qid=1148483672/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-5262745-5443247?s=books&v=glance&n=283155)* and [elsewhere](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=4528), Cato scholars have explained that Medicaid HSAs are *not* a free-market health care reform and instead distract Congress from reforming Medicaid the way it reformed welfare in 1996.

In fact, Rep. Rogers proposed a number of non-free-market health reforms:

- Expanded federal regulation of the health insurance markets (a.k.a. “association health plans”)
- Federal health information technology reforms
- Federal malpractice liability reform

Rep. Rogers concluded his opening remarks by saying that health care “is the one place where we know how to tinker, we know where to tinker, \[and\] now we just \[need to\] have the will to tinker.”

I demur. Free-market reforms reduce the influence of government over the economy. The proposals offered by Rep. Rogers do the opposite. Then again, I have only listened to the Heritage event. I have not seen the most recent iteration of Rep. Rogers’ legislation, which is not yet available online. I hope Rep. Rogers or someone from the Heritage Foundation will explain what makes Medicaid HSAs (or the other proposals) a free-market health care reform.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) 

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