[Oberon]

Don't know about a Republican alternative... the GOP leadership is just as happy to stick with the big-government solution... but here is a Conservative idea:

STOP EXEMPTING THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY FROM LAWS THAT BAN RESTRAINT OF TRADE.

Here's an article on that very topic by Karl Denninger, from his Market Ticker blog:

An Example Of The Health-Care Rape

If you don't want to click and read, here's a worthy sample:

Those practices are supposed to be a felony. So says the Sherman and Clayton Act (15 USC §1-3). So says (in respect to commodities) Robinson-Patman (15 USC §13).

So where are the prosecutions? They're missing, because we also have McCarran-Ferguson that exempts insurance companies from most of the Sherman and Clayton act (explicitly!) and that, along with other laws, effectively exempts the medical industry from laws that prohibit this behavior in virtually every other line of business.

As a direct consequence these 4,000% price disparities exist.

As a direct consequence you pay 4,000% more, directly and indirectly, than you should.

[Mr. Jeeves]

That's the exact solution...but don't hold your breath waiting for the bought-and-paid-for Republicans to start advocating it.

Everybody wants to find a way to keep their scam going for just one more election cycle.