What the iPad Can Teach Us About Health Care Reform

The iPad is a remarkable innovation. I ordered one as soon as it was available, and despite it not having all of the functions and features I could use it's a terrific machine.

As remarkable as I find the iPad, however, I also find it, well, expected. When you think about Apple products in general, remarkable has become expected.

I would put in that same remarkable-but-expected category a matter-of-fact comment made by a gentleman named Derek Hoffman in a USA Today article about the iPad. He said, "I'm holding out for the next version so Apple can work out all the problems. The second generation model will be faster, better and cheaper."

A comment like that is nothing if not expected. We all know it's true. But that's what makes it so remarkable. We all know it's true.The next generation iPad (and all of the next generation e-readers, laptops, cell phones, etc.) will be faster, better and cheaper. That's the glory of the free market, the blessing of the invisible hand and the fruit of an economic system that fosters competition, rewards innovation, and lets the individual decisions made by millions of individuals guide the evolution of industries to better meet their needs. We're all better off for it.

Reading Hoffman's quip, I couldn't help but be reminded of our national health care debate. Market forces have been so good to us when it comes to consumer electronics and every other product and service category; they would be good to us in health care as well, if we took off the regulatory and tax policy shackles that have woven their way in, around and through the industry over the past several decades. But we seem to be going the opposite way.

The marketplace is a giant ocean; its force is like water. It will find its own way, no matter how we attempt to divert or control it. The fact that we continue to try is, I suppose, expected.

How remarkable things could be if we just let go.