What a great deal it is to be in the government racket: Enact a solution to fix a problem. The solution creates more problems. Then call for a new solution to address the new problem that you've created.

I thought of this when I read of a story about the desire of some in Ohio to enact a "patients' bill of rights." Gov. Ted Strickland is sympathetic to the cause.

The Toledo Blade talked with doctors across the country and found "that a growing number of doctors believe there’s an epidemic of insurers interfering with medical-treatment decisions.

While insurers have their own financial incentives, the most restrictive form of insurers, HMOs, was birthed by the political class. While a patients bill of rights has a noble sound to it, federal employee unions have objected to enacting such a measure to their own health care plans. As Robert Moffit wrote, "Consumer choice is a powerful instrument of patient protection. The best policy is to extend the principle of choice and competition to the health care system, and allow Americans to choose for themselves the plans they want. In such a system, lawyers would be largely superfluous."

Unfortunately, most insured people are stuck in a single system--whatever their employers choose--by tax laws, and those who seek individual policies are hindered by excessive regulations (mandated benefits, guaranteed issue, community rating, in-state sales only) that drive up the cost of insurance, making consumer sovereignty a mirage. A politically legislated bill of rights is a poor substitute for consumer power.