Our health care system is dysfunctional: Here’s how to make America healthy again

American health care is getting more expensive, but Americans aren’t getting healthier. We spend $4.8 trillion annually on health care — more than any other country — only to have some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world.

Spending more money on government programs is not the solution. What we need is a fundamental paradigm shift toward health care freedom. We spend three times more per capita than Italy on health care, the average American lifespan is five years shorter. This isn’t an ode to Europe’s socialist single-payer health care systems; it is a wake-up call. Indeed, the U.S. government already controls more health care spending than socialist European systems. Our health care system is just corporate crony socialism disguised as free-market health care.

Consider that over 70 percent of American adults, and nearly 40 percent of American children, are overweight and obese. Over 40 percent of American teens struggle with anxiety and depression, and 22 percent of them seriously considered suicide. Adults aren’t much better — nearly one in five American adults experience a mental health issue. There is a connection between a poor diet, lack of exercise and degrading mental health. The American food supply is contributing to the problem; 73 percent of the food in our grocery stores is considered ultra-processed.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — also known as “food stamps” — also incentivizes poor health outcomes. Junk food and soda account for 20 percent of the spending in the program, which subsidizes grocery bills for low-income Americans. Between 2019-2023, spending on the program doubled, and taxpayers will continue to pay even more for other people's bad habits.

But rather than prevent negative health outcomes on the front end, we treat them after the fact. Ninety percent of our health care spending is on chronic diseases. Encouraged often by the NIH, we are increasingly an overmedicated country looking for a “quick fix” to our health issues. Indeed, most Americans will have almost 40 vaccine doses before they turn 18, and someone born in 2019 will likely be taking a prescription drug for 30-50 years of their life.

Many believe drugs like Ozempic are the solution to our obesity problem, because that is what the “experts” tell us, even though only 28 percent of Americans meet even the CDC recommendations for physical activity. Too many of the so-called experts creating dietary guidelines at the USDA have food and pharma conflicts of interest, so we should take their advice with a grain of salt.

Government-manufactured unhealthiness seems to be by design. Pharma companies, insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers and hospitals rarely make money off gym memberships and higher fruit and vegetable sales. By abandoning the focus on health, this makes the cost of everything in health care more expensive, and people are discouraged from seeking the care they need.

We must end the crony capitalism ruining our health care system. We must be brave enough to overhaul the government bureaucrats at NIH, CDC and the USDA — and to take on Big Insurance, Big Hospital, Big Pharma, Big Corporations and Big Ag. Doing so will be a tall task — the health care sector spent over $750 million lobbying the federal government for special treatment just last year. In comparison, the often-maligned military-industrial complex spent almost six times less on lobbying.

As a result, health insurance in this country is not portable or convenient, and that’s not an accident. The government spends over $300 billion a year subsidizing employers to provide health insurance; if you lose or leave your job, you lose your health insurance and your access to medical care.

Instead of allowing big corporations to dominate health care policy, we must empower Americans and reward them for making smarter health care decisions; this will also let innovators improve upon the status quo. Direct care models and Health Savings Accounts are two ways to do that.

Direct primary care can help bring down costs and expand access without relying on a complicated array of insurance networks, codes and billing. Think of it as Amazon Prime for your doctor: unlimited visits and heavily discounted labs and medications can make people more confident in their health care finances and not miss those crucial follow-up appointments because they fear the cost. Some employers are already ditching traditional insurance companies for direct primary care and saving up to 40 percent.

Health Savings Accounts or HSAs allow people to save for health expenses tax-free. Under a health care freedom model, employers could contribute to an employee’s HSA instead of serving as an HR wing of the government. These savings plans can empower those who want to opt out of an over-regulated and impersonal health care system and take power over their medical decisions back from massive insurance companies.

Unfortunately, federal law currently limits how effective HSAs can be. Their contribution limits are too low, and direct primary care and health care sharing ministries are not HSA-eligible expenses, while rental cars and scooters are. You also only can have an HSA now if you have a high-deductible health plan. All of these restrictions should be eliminated.

If politicians don’t treat this health care crisis with the attention it deserves, health care will bankrupt us and give the average American a less fulfilling life than they deserve.

Enough is enough. We must embrace two steps to health care freedom. First, we must break the grip of the cronyism that feeds us poisoned food and makes a quick buck off the “cure.” Then, we must free the system using direct primary care and HSAs — among other things — to destroy the third-party paper pushers' power to deny us an affordable and personalized relationship with the health care provider of our choice.

Get the government bureaucrat and corporate America out of the way of you and your farmer and you and your providers so that we can make America healthy again.

Chip Roy represents the 21st Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives.