Opinion: Reducing third-party payers leads to humane health care

Each new government intervention in health care over the past two generations has dehumanized care and accelerated costs. A new rule proposed by U.S. Health and Human Services expanding health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) can help reverse this trend by promoting patient-directed care.

In 1965, federal and state governments adopted a similar third-party payment system in the form of Medicare...