The RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity released the third and final report on reforming health care, by Sean Parnell, yesterday.  The focus is a few steps that Rhode Island could take, accepting that ObamaCare is law and that Rhode Island is not a state to buck it:

It is our Center’s conclusion that it is not feasible that a government-centric, one-size-fits-all approach via the state’s health benefits exchange can adequately address the needs of a highly diverse population. Only with additional patient-centric, consumer-oriented options can we move toward the goal of ensuring that more Rhode Islanders achieve health care and financial peace of mind.

The list of suggestions is actually pretty modest and, frankly, obvious:

• Mandate-free and mandate-lite, full-disclosure insurance policies — so that people who don’t need or can’t afford all of the bells and whistles in an insurance plan can still get coverage.
• Interstate insurance sales — so that Rhode Islanders don’t have to be trapped by their borders.
• Health care sharing ministries — so that Christians who prefer a different mechanism than “insurance” to cover their costs can live according to their values.
• Critical illness and accident insurance — so that individuals can assess their own tolerance for risk and determine how they’d like to address challenges that come up.

Some legislators appear interested in potentially advancing some of these policies, but honesty requires one to acknowledge that it’ll be an uphill battle, for much the same reason that ObamaCare wasn’t challenged in RI. Too many powerful people want to be able to make promises that others have to honor.

But the fact that those four items would be revolutionary is something folks should think about when big-government activists claim our health care system was struggling because it operated by “free-market principles.” (Hard not to laugh, I know.)