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We need to de-regulate the health care sector and have it become a true market. This would put in the opposite trajectory from RomneyCare, ArnoldCare and HillaryCare. The problem isn't the American health care system, which is the best in the world for all its shortcomings. No - the real problem is government has heavily regulated health care to the point where its more expensive and less accessible than it ought to be. Piling more of the same on a broken system will make it even worse. Its time to remove the shackles and allow consumers to decide what sort of health care best fits their needs.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

True and Romney agrees with that -- in fact he sees it as Step #1. Romney believes that by expanding and deregulating the private health insurance market, we can decrease costs and ensure that more Americans have access to affordable, portable, quality, private health insurance.

Here's a more viewable version of the plan in a power point format:

The Romney Vision: Health Care Reform Goals

• First, Instituting Reforms That Make Private Health Insurance Affordable. More Americans need access to quality, private health insurance.

• Second, Providing Access To Quality Health Insurance For Every American.

• Third, Enhancing The Portability Of Private Health Insurance.

• Finally, Slowing The Rate Of Inflation In Health Care Spending.

Linking Goals With Action Steps:
The Federalist Approach -- Governor Romney's Approach To Health Care Reform Is One That Values The States As Laboratories Of Innovation And Beacons Of Creativity.

The Romney Plan: Six Action Steps

• Step 1: Establish Federal Incentives To Deregulate And Reform State Health Insurance Markets So Market Forces Can Work.

• Step 2: Redirect Federal Spending On "Free Care" To Help The Low-Income Uninsured Purchase Private Insurance.

• Step 3: Institute Health Savings Account (HSA) Enhancements And The Full Deductibility Of Qualified Medical Expenses.

• Step 4: Promote Innovation In Medicaid.

• Step 5: Implement Medical Liability Reform.

• Step 6: Bring Market Dynamics And Modern Technology To Health Care.

Also, a very big part of the puzzle to bringing healthcare costs down is tort reform which Romney supports and other top-tier candidates oppose.

Like Newt Gingrich said: "You can have affordable health care and a good environment for jobs. Or you can have rich trial lawyers filing frivolous lawsuits. Not both."

From the Romney Platform:

- Tort Costs Are Too High. According to a recent report, U.S. tort costs reached $260.8 billion in 2005, which translates to $880 per person. This is an amount greater than the Gross Domestic Product of all but 35 countries in the world. Frivolous lawsuits and outrageous damages awards create a "liability tax" or "tort tax," which are passed along to every consumer in the country.

- Governor Romney Believes We Should Limit Non-Economic Damages And Prevent Excessive Punitive Damages Award. Non-Economic damages are inherently speculative, and a reasonable statutory cap makes sense. Governor Romney also believes we need a statutory prohibition on outrageous punitive damage awards.

- Governor Romney Believes We Should Require More Disclosure In Contingency Fee Arrangements. More disclosure will help clients make informed decisions, and it will help end abusive lawsuits and extortionate settlement demands by plaintiffs' lawyers.

Even the co-founder of the Federalist Society, Judge Robert Bork, agrees that national tort reform has become necessary.

You cannot deregulate healthcare, because you can’t impeach the judges that rule you have to treat everybody. Somebody is going to pay for the free care and it is going to be you.....
True, if you could deregulate it, then nobody without money gets treated. Lets get real here, the judges won’t let that happen so we pay and pay in premiums. Next best is something that requires you to have insurance so at least we channel the people into medical offices rather than hospitals. You either have that or you continue with spiraling premiums which leads to more people getting free care since paying the premiums becomes an impossibility.