We don't buy insurance for routine expenses. Not with our own money. But if our employers paid the premiums, tax free, we'd soon demand reimbursement for oil changes and car washes. Routine maintenance would become "a Basic Right of all Americans."

We'd get daily car washes and weekly oil changes. Insurance rates would skyrocket. The uninsured would be forced to drive dirty cars. Politicians, who created this farce, would of course blame everyone else. "We have a car care crisis! The free market has failed!!"

Yes, that's silly. But it's accurate. The free market hasn't failed; we don't have one. The illusion of free health care has failed; we can't afford it. There is a health care crisis, but it has been created by politicians and nurtured by regulators.

Instead, let's provide health insurance like car insurance - affordable and portable, with over 50 competitors fighting for your business, at the highest deductible (and lowest premium) you're comfortable with.

Let's also replace the wasteful processing of small and routine claims - and instead pay cash from your tax-free Medical Savings Account, using a simple debit card.