With Medical Savings Accounts, people would have cash to cover routine medical expenses plus full catastrophic coverage above a certain level. The gaping gaps of Medicare will disappear -- there will be no more need for Medigap insurance. Americans will no longer have the anxiety that they might fall between the Medicare cracks.

And we would break the vicious cycle we're caught in of reducing benefits and raising costs to beneficiaries. Only if we take control from the politicians and give it to the elderly themselves will the elderly know that their medical coverage is safe and not subject to future back door deals. Isn't it time to take health care in this area out of the hands of Washington bureaucrats and put it into the hands of the American people?

Health care is a major worry for American families. At FORBES magazine, we started a new idea -- a form of Medical Savings Accounts. NBC News called it a success story that improved health care.

With Medical Savings Accounts, people choose their own doctors. Costs are lower. And individuals get to keep the money they save. Medical Savings Accounts can improve care, cut waste and protect Medicare -- without cutting benefits. And you control your health care, not the politicians.