There is no doubt that America’s health care system warrants immediate attention and various culprits have been blamed for the system’s slow disintegration. Much of the anger consumers feel with today’s health care system is directed at rising costs and out-of-pocket expenses.

Surprisingly, their discontent does not lie with the restrictive policies and protectionist-minded policymakers that have created the inflated prices, and their frustration has not been with the exorbitant amount of their tax dollars spent paying for other people’s health care. The overwhelming cry is that the government has not done enough.

A study that revealed stagnant and declining life expectancy rates for various populations in the United States has ignited a firestorm of charges that the government has failed to encourage the public to make healthier lifestyle choices.

A look at recent government campaigns reveals another story. In New York City, a federal judge has approved a city ordinance that would require chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus. Proposed legislation in Mississippi would prohibit restaurants from serving people with a Body Mass Index greater than 30.

Intrusive tactics like these represent a growing trend in government over-reach, while the overwhelming reception of bureaucratic involvement reveals a sense of government reliance never before seen in the United States. There is no greater testament to our society’s embrace of dependency than the battle cry to expand government health programs and extend coverage to higher-income families.

The federal government already spends more than $700 billion a year on health services to millions of low-income households. This money comes straight from the pockets of fellow taxpayers, redistributing the hard-earned money of those earning more and giving it to those earning less.

A number of studies have concluded that as much as 60 percent of the children newly eligible for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program already have private health insurance. Under this new dependency mentality, people are dropping their private coverage for subsidized government programs at an alarming rate. One study found that in several SCHIP programs, at least 28 percent of children enrolled in SCHIP had been enrolled in private coverage during the last six months.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has estimated that between 50 percent and 75 percent of previous increases in Medicaid coverage are associated with a reduction in private insurance coverage. Congressional Budget Office testimony supports this data with reports that states are seeing reductions in the number of privately insured by as much as 50 percent.

The majority of health care proposals – expanding public programs, extending government subsidies, requiring employers to contribute to health care benefits – appeal to this new dependency mentality. These strategies build on the fundamental structure of our already broken system, forcing a select group of individuals to subsidize health care for a growing portion of our population, increasing government dependency and further insulating the majority of consumers from the cost of health care.

As these charitable programs grow, encouraging more government dependency and further isolating consumers from the actuary cost of health care, they eliminate the financial consequences of poor lifestyle choices and open the door to over-reaching government policies. The expansion of public programs creates financial incentives for the government to implement policies that define individual lifestyle choices and manipulate the market place in an effort to constrain health care spending.

Continuing this pattern will inevitably foster the development of regulatory guidelines that dictate our behavior. An effective transformation of American health care will require dismantling the current structure and rebuilding a consumer driven market crafted around personal responsibility and competition.

Allowing the health care system to harnesses market forces would entail limiting government control of health insurance and health care providers. A consumer driven health care market would allow individuals to take control of their health care, driving down costs by encouraging competition and letting individuals decide which health care services are most valuable to them.

By restraining government’s regulatory reach and limiting government health care subsidies, this new approach to health care would lead to lower taxes and encourage individuals to make decisions that are both financially responsible and healthy. A return to competition and personal responsibility will cure America’s health care crisis…if we let it.

Kalese Hammonds is a health care policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.