One of the biggest reasons why our health care system falls short is the fact that we have a fragmented system. Having such a system promotes inefficiencies which in turn lead to unnecessary spending. Such spending manifests itself in a number of ways:

1. Lack of spending on health information technology. The United States is disorganized when it comes to health information systems. This is an item President Obama is trying to remedy with electronic medical records. An easy solution would be a tax credit for all Doctors to acquire EMR’s for their practices.
2. As a result of our health information technology, more tests are performed by doctors. This extra testing is often a defensive measure by health care providers protecting themselves from malpractice lawsuits.
3. Over utilization of the ER by Americans for conditions that could have been handled by a primary care physician.

In order to dive down these costs health spending decisions need to be pushed down to the individual. When people purchase their own health insurance and the playing field is leveled with a tax credit like companies receive for purchasing health insurance, individuals can be incentivized to improved their health and spend their dollars more wisely. For example, if a person knows it’s going to cost them 5 times the amount to visit a hospital emergency room instead of a clinic they will make their economic decision to reduce cost. This also can be said about improving ones health and incentivizing the individual to quit smoking or lose weight. Health insurance is not the problem but the current system is designed around protecting the Doctor from liability and spending other peoples money.