Healthcare
“If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.”
– P. J. O’Rourke, author
Health care is not a right or a privilege. It’s a service, and like other goods and services, it should be provided by free-market competition.
The U. S. once had the finest health care system in the world. The standard of care was growing by leaps and bounds. Health care was reasonably priced, so that most people didn’t even feel the need to buy health insurance except for catastrophic illnesses. Doctors and hospitals voluntarily provided free health care to the poor. Doctors were happy with their work.
Not anymore. Since the 1960s, there has been an ongoing health care crisis in America, one that has resulted in ever-increasing health care costs that threaten to bankrupt people. Moreover, many doctors hate their profession and choose to retire as soon as they can.
The main reason for this is the federal government’s heavy intervention into health care, consisting of (1) Medicare and Medicaid, two programs enacted in the 1960s, which have placed extraordinary financial demands on America’s health-care system; (2) occupational licensing, which artificially limits the supply of health care providers; (3) an ever-growing, intricate web of health care regulations and tax regulations that warp and distort the health care industry; and (4) the excessive costs of prescription drugs due to Food & Drug Administration (FDA) certification requirements.
Some immediate reforms would be to promote Medical Savings Accounts (similar to IRA’s); make health care expenses tax-deductible; allow people to buy health insurance across state lines; allow insurance companies to offer limited, catastrophic policies; replace the FDA with private sector drug certification; and allow people to buy drugs from other countries, and even over-the-counter without prescriptions.
