The United States health care system ranks second to none in the quality of patient care for serious and life-threatening diseases, but we also have significant gaps in insurance coverage and financial incentives that drive up health care costs and encourage the overuse of certain types of care, including defensive medicine to ward off lawsuits. Public health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid also suffer from substantial degrees of waste, fraud, and abuse, siphoning off scarce taxpayer funds that could be used for other priorities such as education or defense.

   Much of the waste and the high cost of health care can be attributed to the system of third-party payment for health care that has developed in this country since WWII. Third-party payment plans allow some consumers to use services without ever paying the full cost of health care utilization while others pay for benefits they don't need or want. The result is a system where health care costs spiral out of control and consumer choice is limited to the one or two insurance plans usually offered by employers. The Center for Medical Progress advocates for putting patients in charge of their own routine health care decisions and spending, reserving insurance for truly catastrophic injuries; and creating an interstate market for health insurance that encourages customized insurance plans and competition to provide high quality health care to all Americans.