Health care has been producing a lively debate in the United States.  A lot of theories are advanced, but no one really understands the entire goal of this political exercise.  Philosophically both sides of the debate have a point, but no one really solves the real problems: (1) financing the reform, (2) making a reform a reality at no cost, and (3) giving freedom to the American people to choose to participate in health care if they want to.  Among those, the main problem with the current system is the increasing cost of the health care. How can we continue to sustain such high prices without looking into the system?

The first real improvement of our health care system would come when the Department of Justice starts looking into the different relationships between insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies.  If the market is private and competitive, how can we explain that an aspirin costs $11?  The Justice Department needs to review the industry and make an assessment of a possible collusion between the actors to keep prices up, as there is some suspicion that insurance companies engage in price fixing in order to maintain the bills paid by patients so high.  Moreover, the generic debate needs to be revisited.  The generic drugs are almost equivalent to the brand name, but sometimes have more side-effects that brand name drugs.  Should we continue a straight switch to generics or is the mandatory switch to generic biasing competition in the pharmaceutical industry?  Also, should we outlaw the practices of the pharmaceutical industry that offers samples and gifts to doctors?  Some of these questions would need to be answered first by the DOJ before changing the entire system.