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Much of conservative thought is predicated upon the idea that, wherever possible, competition is the best system of organizing individual efforts. Conservatives regard competition as better not only for its efficiency, but more importantly because a competitive free market is the only system that can effectively adapt our activities to each other without capricious or coercive intervention of authority.

This belief is also grounded in experience. Rare is the person who feels pangs of joy when dealing with the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles, or learning of the National Security Agency’s unwarranted invasions of our privacy. An endless morass of paperwork and dead-ends awaits those entering this vast bureaucratic web. Now Obamacare is joining the tangle, and conservatives are rightly wary.

Bureaucracy not only breeds inefficiency, but also inflates costs. Soaring college tuition is a prime example, and healthcare will be no different. Under Obamacare, Wisconsinites will already see year-over-year rate increases of 51 percent, according to Commissioner of Insurance predictions. If the government was handing out unaccountable money, wouldn’t you jack up your prices too?

Even more frightening than these increased expenses is the deprivation of individual liberty that follows Obamacare’s governmental expansion. In the words of Adam Smith, one of the founders of modern economics, “the statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would … assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.” Liberty is a kernel of American identity, and Obama’s mandate is folly indeed.

Fortunately, Americans are not limited to either Obamacare or our previous system. A third, better, free market solution exists. Compiled by the Heritage foundation, it is based on five premises:

1. Choose, control and carry your own health insurance;

2. Let free markets provide the insurance and health care services that people want;

3. Encourage employers to provide a portable health insurance benefit to employees;

4. Assist those who need help through civil society, the free market and the states; and

5. Protect the right of conscience and unborn children.

Health insurance should be personal, portable and capable of staying with an individual as he/she moves from job to job and from birth to retirement. Rather than being forced by Obamacare into government-run exchanges, individuals should be able to purchase insurance that can follow them through life. To facilitate a transition to this model, the government could, among other things, move from tax breaks for employer-subsidized insurance toward a flat tax credit that individuals could use to purchase their own insurance.

Another concern for our healthcare system is pre-existing conditions. Obama claimed that as many as 129 million Americans “could be denied coverage” due to pre-existing conditions. This is far from the truth. In fact, only 134,708 individuals are estimated to have enrolled in the federal high-risk pool program since its inception under Obamacare. Further, solutions to the pre-existing condition problem have been successful far before Obamacare, without federal intervention. Thirty-five states are already operating high-risk pools for 227,000 individuals with pre-existing conditions; why not work with this?

Despite Obama’s promise that “if you like your plan you can keep it. Period,” millions of Americans are receiving letters of cancellation from their insurance providers. This is unacceptable. We need to reduce and remove the causes of insurance cancellations — bureaucratic red tape and governmental control. Health care should operate under market incentives that encourage consumer choice and competition. Federal barriers to cross-state insurance purchasing should be removed so that individuals can choose a health plan that best meets their needs, regardless of location. Waste and restrictive regulations should be eliminated at all levels, no compromise.

There are many other changes that can be made to improve our country’s healthcare system, but ultimately they all should be cemented in the free-market ideals of competition and individual freedom, not government intervention and restrictions. How can a few politicians in Washington know better than you do about your different needs? We believe in individuals and their ability to know what is best for themselves. Obamacare curtails and weakens individual agency, whilst increasing medical costs and proliferating inefficiencies. A real healthcare solution, like the one sketched above, does neither.