One look at the House and Senate health care bills shows who Congress’ favorite constituencies are. It must be sheer joy to be on that list. If you or your group are there, it means Big Brother loves you and will address your every whim. Of course this largesse comes at the expense of others, but you’re not worried about that. You’re more important, more deserving, a little more equal than the rest.

What’s more interesting than who is on the dole, is who isn’t. For example, there’s not much in there for doctors. The bills are loaded with rules and regulations, those type of sentences that contain the words “shall” and “must.” Somehow, Congress left the goodies out. No scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, no guaranteed minimums, no cushy boards to create steady streams of government cash into the pool of physician pockets.

Sadly, Congress is littered with people who suffer from economic ignorance, mostly by choice but some through pure lack of understanding. So, let’s take a moment to explore a possibility that will no doubt raise the ire of those other favorite children of the political class. Let’s do something really radical. Let’s give all medical personnel a ten year tax holiday. No, Congress, that’s not a trip to Hawaii with the President. A ten year tax holiday means that anyone working in the practicing side of medicine pays no federal income taxes for ten years. This policy includes doctors, nurses, technicians, all the people who actually do the job of diagnosing, treating, and frequently curing human physical ills.

Why? Well, as Valerie Jarrett would say, let’s keep this simple. In the first place, removing federal income tax from doctor pay is the equivalent of giving them a massive raise. That’s right, doctors would make more money. Fields that pay more money typically draw the best and brightest, and the higher the salary, the more people seek out those positions. Therefore, the number of doctors would rise. Not only doctors, but also nurses, lab techs, all the many and sundry positions that make the health care system hum would see a boost.

Before some Congressman gets his knickers in a bunch with a whining lament about fairness, let’s examine the second component of the ten year tax holiday policy. With the increased supply in medical personnel, comes increased competition. In other words, the public utilizing health care services would soon have more choice. The more choice and competition, the better for the consumer. Similarly, without high taxes built into the price, medical professionals are less likely to see an effective reduction in their pay even if the prices decline. In other words, the cost of services would have to decrease by more than the effective tax rate before a person sees a real reduction in their net income. Generally speaking, that means something in the neighborhood of a 28-35 percent lowering of prices. Who doesn’t want to pay nearly a third less?

Congress, that’s who.

“OH, NO!” says the good Congresswoman from San Francisco. “That’s not how it works.” Well, yes it is. Over the course of several years, (because you don’t become a health care professional as quickly as you can be elected to Congress) there would be a wider field of providers. If Congress kept its sticky fingers out of the system, these competing groups would drive prices down until an equilibrium was reached.

The wise Congressman from Vermont begs to differ with the plea that “health care is different.” He’s wrong. Health care is the same as automobiles, cell phones, and Caribbean vacations (unless you’re the Congressman from a certain district in New York City). If there is any difference, it is that Congress forbids health care competition and screws up the works. A person in Pennsylvania can’t buy health insurance in Texas, nor can a group of doctors open a hospital in New York without first bowing to the government’s demands of the services they “must” provide.

Therefore, it is Congress, not greedy doctors and insurance companies, that has created a so-called health care crisis. The good news is, they can fix it. They can do for doctors what they’ve done for many other non-health providers. They can give them a special place under the tax law. Most recently, government has done this for green jobs, an area that has little to do with health care. Why do people get a break for solar panels but not for caring for the ill? Because Big Brother said so, that’s why.

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