Steve Forbes‘ latest column in Forbes magazine suggests that Republican lawmakers offer a viable alternative to the 2010 federal health care law.

The provisions that should be included in the counter-Obama legislation are straightforward.

–Nationwide shopping for insurance. I could get a very good policy in neighboring Pennsylvania, at half the cost of one in my home state of New Jersey. But I’m prohibited from doing so, even though I can buy pretty much anything else there. Allow insurance companies to operate under interstate commerce laws and there will be hundreds of companies competing for your business.

–Equal tax treatment. Businesses and self-employed people get a tax deduction for insurance premiums. Extend that to individuals.

–No Medicare money to be used for financing ObamaCare. This might also be made a separate bill so that we can enjoy the spectacle of Harry Reid explaining why Democrats can’t defend the financial integrity of Medicare.

–Eat your own cooking. Congress and its staff, under ObamaCare, are supposed to buy insurance on an ObamaCare exchange. They don’t want to because they’ll lose the fabulous deal they have currently. So, illegally, the President has given them an exemption. The public, as it becomes aware of this, is up in arms. So reinstate the law; if tens of millions of Americans have to eat this awful Obama stew, Capitol Hill should, too. Kimberley A. Strassel, in the Wall Street Journal, makes a wonderful case for this.

–Encourage high-risk pools. Preexisting conditions can make insurance for many people unaffordable or simply unavailable. Health care expert Sally Pipes notes, “[High-risk] pools were functioning well in many states before ObamaCare–providing affordable coverage to those with preexisting conditions without raising premiums for everyone else.” Permit and push states to do these again.

–Push medical-malpractice reform. Defensive medicine costs more than $100 billion a year.

–Eliminate ObamaCare’s mandated benefits. They artificially raise insurance costs. Let people decide what they want.