Health Care Bared

I think it’s important that people understand from where I’m coming. If you haven’t figured it out already from some of my previous posts, I’m a libertarian. I don’t really care who’s running the government, I just want them to leave us alone to the greatest extent that they can. I do believe we need government for some very limited things (mostly to legislate and enforce the minimum-needed laws that help us to get along).

I also believe that liberty requires vigilant protection and that America has done a very poor job of being vigilant and committed to the principles of liberty. The current health care plan is a shining example of what should be opposed and fiercely.

I can tell you where to get a copy of the bill, but I can’t tell you where to get unbiased, reliable analysis of the bill. I know of a few people that have undertaken the task without access to lawyers and external documents that are referenced in the text, but their analysis is very supsect. You can download a copy of HR3200 here.

Unfortunately, reading that bill is only so good. Knowing the details of the plan and how it will affect you is important, especially if it passes, but the thing you’ll want to keep uppermost in mind are the following points, because these points are by far more important than any of the details in that legislation.

We’re focusing so much on individual ants, we’re not seeing the river about to swarm over us.

Try not to get distracted with the bickering going on about the intricacies of the plan, the following points are far more important.

1. Our federal government has never run a program within budget. There were huge opponents to the Medicare and Social Security Programs back when they were first established. What we see now with the fiscal crisis of those programs is validation that the government should never have created the programs in the first place. Our government’s solution is not to shut those programs down and find a way to pay off those who have invested into the system. Instead, they want to overhaul the health care industry as a whole. They don’t want to just perpetuate what has failed miserably, they want to quadruple the failure.
2. Our federal government has failed to provide good service in just about every entitlement program they’ve established. Doctors can’t get the funds they need from Medicare. Patients can’t get the health care they need from the VA. It is a truth that in spite of 40+ years in our war on poverty, the poor are still poor. Expecting government to be successful this time around defies belief.
3. Consider every other country with nationalized health care. With the exception of a few Scandinavian countries, where they do fairly well with socialism because of high revenues from the sale of national resources, no socialistic medicine anywhere in the world works very well. It’s hubris to think we can do better, especially in light of #2 above.
4. It gives the government too much power. They already have far far too much. Consider the fact that they raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco (much more on tobacco, because it’s an acceptable demon), simply based upon their perceived costs on the health care industry (Medicaid/Medicare). Whenever the government gets power, it wants to control and regulate. This point leads to a very long conversation, but one that every person should have at some point.
5. There are solutions to the Health Insurance Problem, but they involve removing government regulations, not adding to them. They involve greater competition among Health Insurance carriers by removing restrictions among the states on that health care. They involve allowing people to insure themselves against catastrophic health care costs, not against regular check-up and maintenance which sucks so much out of the system.

In all, if the government were a corporation, they would be out of business with the points I’ve listed above (1 – 4). But instead they’re able to set the cost of their products/services (not the free market), eliminate the competition (by pushing an overpowered federal government and emasculated state government), and with the threat of physical force, their “customers” are required to purchase their products/services (police-backed tax collection).

According to U.S. Census Bureau. (Issued August 2008), “The government directly covers 27.8% of the population through health care programs for the elderly, disabled, military service families and veterans, children, and some of the poor, through Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and TRICARE.” Which of those plans is well-funded, well-serviced, and deserves to be emulated for the rest of the population?