 Voices For Freedom Read Columns
|
|
|---|---|
|
|
© 2006 Daniel J. McLaughlin The Planned Health Care Economy Once upon a time, there was a vast empire called the Soviet Union. It was led by some very smart people who were arrogant enough to believe they could and should control the lives of millions of citizens. Fortunately for the people of that empire and for the rest of the world, it no longer exists. It collapsed under it’s own weight because it killed the vitality necessary for growth and prosperity. New York central planners have recently set out on a bold initiative to further plan the health care economy in the state, just as the Soviet planners did, boldly leading their people down the path to devastation. Stephen Berger is the chairman of the commission charged with trying to reform and reorder one of the most expensive and inefficient health care systems in the country. He was right when he said the state’s health care network was broken. When the patient is sick with arsenic poisoning, the cure is not more arsenic. The health care system in New York and the entire United States is sick with the poison of government control. Virtually all aspects of the health care system are in some way regulated by government bureaucracy and distorted by government funding. The cure for the ailing system is not more control. The only cure is to remove the cause of the problem. Health care was never an issue in this country until the government got involved. The health of the people spiraled dramatically upward without Health Departments, licensing boards, bureaucracies and government funding. Health care was affordable because the free market operated and people made their own decisions. Health care is a service. It is very similar to plumbing, carpentry, accounting and legal services. Everyone has a right to engage a health care professional in exactly the same way he or she has a right to contract with a carpenter. Nobody has a right to prevent or manipulate their mutual agreement for the provision of services. Imagine what would happen to the price and supply of carpentry services if government decided to regulate them as they do medical services. Only master carpenters would be able to do repairs, even if they were simple jobs requiring little skill. The supply of new carpenters would be artificially restricted by a government sponsored monopoly in carpenter training. That would drive the cost of carpenters up as demand outstripped supply. You would have to wait weeks or months to get vital repairs done. New building materials would take years and millions of dollars to develop and get approved. Cheaper options for supplies would not be available. The cost of Homeowners insurance would skyrocket as policies were required to cover every pre-existing condition and every kind of maintenance and repair, using only the most up to date and expensive materials. Cheaper basic insurance would not be available because laws would prevent insurance companies from offering just what the customer wanted for a lower cost. Billions of dollars of Carpent-aid program funds would wildly distort the market and drive costs up due to artificial demand. Additional billions of tax dollars would be funneled into scientific research to improve carpentry methods and tools, further crippling the market mechanisms for allocating resources based on real demand. The general health and well being of a nation has little to do with the medical profession and acute medical care. The real key to the health of any society is the level of prosperity. The more prosperous the nation, the better the nutrition, the longer the life expectancy, the healthier the people. All measures of well being increase as freedom and prosperity increase. In any industry, given a free market, costs tend to decrease significantly over time as competition and innovation improve quality and delivery. When an industry does not experience that tendency toward declining cost and/or increasing quality, it’s a strong indicator that government has it’s fingers in the pie. The fact that state officials have authority to close down, restructure or move patients between any health care institutions, or to make them fiscally stable, indicates how un-free the healthcare market is. It is absurd to blame the free market for the mess that government makes. The Berger Commission has come up with a complex package, sure to please those who favor big government and social planning. The burgeoning market for lawyers and consultants who give advice on compliance and institutional survival will also get a boost. Patients and taxpayers, regrettably, won’t make out so well. |
|
Daniel Mclaughlin
|
|