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When English farmer David Evans was told he needed a hernia operation, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service told him he would need to have it treated within 18 weeks.

But thanks to the inefficiency of government-run health care, the 69-year-old suffered in pain for nearly a year until he received treatment, and only after “repeated calls from himself, his doctor and his local member of parliament,” the Associated Press reports.

Denied treatment, David was forced to monitor his hernia with veterinary equipment, using an ultrasound machine intended to examine pregnant sheep.

Across the U.K., patients are lingering in pain and suffering longer due to the fact that under government-run health care, which Democrats and many Republicans support, government must slash funding for critical medical care and ration access to doctors in order to keep the system afloat — something not seen under consumer-driven care.

“For many hospitals, that means saving money by raising the threshold for who qualifies for treatment and extending waiting times for non-lifesaving surgeries,” the AP reports.

Libertarians have a better idea than the Democrat record of pushing for an American version of the U.K. debacle, and the Republican record of radically expanding dependence on government drug programs:

1. Establish Medical Saving Accounts.

Under this program, you could deposit tax-free money into a Medical Savings Account (MSA). Whenever you need the money to pay medical bills, you will be able to withdraw it. For individuals without an MSA, the Libertarian Party will work to make all healthcare expenditures 100 percent tax deductible.

2. Deregulate the healthcare industry.

We should repeal all government policies that increase health costs and decrease the availability of medical services. For example, every state has laws that mandate coverage of specific disabilities and diseases. These laws reduce consumer choice and increase the cost of health insurance. By making insurance more expensive, mandated benefits increase the number of uninsured American workers.

3. Remove barriers to safe, affordable medicines.

We should replace harmful government agencies like the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) with more agile, free-market alternatives. The mission of the FDA is to protect us from unsafe medicines. In fact, the FDA has driven up healthcare costs and deprived millions of Americans of much-needed treatments. For example, during a 10-year delay in approving Propanolol Propranolol (a heart medication for treating angina and hypertension), approximately 100,000 people died who could have been treated with this lifesaving drug. Bureaucratic roadblocks kill sick Americans.