Hubbard, dean of the Columbia University Business School, and his co-authors argue that our health care debate is handicapped by the conventional wisdom that it’s a zero sum game.

A handful of policy changes that harness the power of markets for health services have the potential to give patients and their physicians more control over health-care choices, create more health-insurance options, lower health costs, reduce the number of uninsured persons--and give workers a pay increase to boot. …

Greater reliance on individual choice and free markets are the solutions to what ails our health-care system. As a starter, we recommended three main proposals to correct the harmful effects of current government policy:

· Make all out-of-pocket health-care expenses deductible against income taxes for everyone who has at least catastrophic insurance--whether or not they itemize their deductions;

· Allow qualified insurance companies to sell insurance nationwide, free from politically motivated state mandates and other costly state-imposed regulatory practices; and

· Set reasonable caps on damages for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases.

Their program represents a common-sense, market friendly approach to health care. Congress and the Bush Administration should take up its recommendations as a basis for national health care reform.