Jim Frogue sent along a link to an essay by Newt Gingrich, titled "The Market Can Fix the Healthcare Problem." You can read it on the web site of U.S. News & World Report.

Among other things, the essay points out to one near-disaster that afflicted one state that took on an overly ambitious reform program that relied on government rather than markets:

In the mid-1990s, Tennessee's Medicaid's program went further than any other state toward the 1993 Hillary Clinton model of government-run healthcare. It proved so catastrophic that only the capable leadership of Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen--who profoundly scaled back the experiment--saved the state.

He also challenges those of us to appreciate the power of peaceful, cooperative commercial exchanges--markets--to make the case for a positive alternative:

Proponents of government-run healthcare gain traction exploiting legitimate frustrations with our system, but opponents do not deserve a place in the debate if our only answer is no. We must offer a positive alternative where healthcare becomes more accessible and of higher quality at lower cost. That is what normal markets produce.