Paul The administration’s terrible health-care reform bill is now law, but the debate over how and whether the federal government should be involved in providing health-care services is not over.

It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a govern- ment-run, “single payer” health- care system.

Polls show most Americans don’t want Obamacare. Congress should repeal the worst aspect of this new legislation, namely the mandate that forces every American to purchase health insurance or face an IRS penalty.

This mandate represents nothing more than an unconstitutional, historically unprecedented gift to the insurance industry. I introduced the End the Mandate Act to prevent the administration from putting this provision into effect.

Instead of mandating the same failed entitlement health-care schemes that are bankrupting Europe, Congress should fundamentally re-examine the case for free-market health care.

Our model, based on employer provided health insurance, did not arise based on market preferences. It makes no sense to couple health insurance with employment.

But federal wage and price controls instituted during World War II left employers with no alternative to attract workers in a tight labor market other than offering extra benefits such as health insurance and pensions.

Over time these non-wage benefits became the norm, especially since employers could deduct the cost of health-insurance premiums from their income taxes while individuals could not. The perverse consequence is that employees lose their paychecks and health insurance when they lose jobs.

As reliance on third-party health insurance grew, patients became detached from the true costs of their doctor visits. In the 1970s, the Nixon administration, along with Sen. Edward Kennedy, championed the cause of health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

Congress accepted the faulty premise that HMOs would reduce costs through centralized management of patients, when in fact the opposite was true: more bureaucracy would only lead to higher costs, less accountability, and worse patient care.

Congress has intensifi ed the problem with more laws and regulations, especially with the disastrous Medicare prescription drug benefit. The benefit was another example of naked patronage to a politicallyconnected industry, and it worsened the government’s balance sheet.

More laws are not the answer. We need to allow a market system to operate that reflects consumer choices while rationally pricing services. Authoritarianism is bad for your health. Congress should end the Obamacare mandate and allow market-based medicine to flourish.

Ron Paul represents the 14th Congressional district of Texas.