Last Saturday many concerned Americans watched
in horror as the House passed the healthcare reform bill. If
this bill makes it through the Senate, it would massively overhaul
the way healthcare is delivered in this country. Today, obviously,
we don't have a perfect system, but this legislation takes all
the mistakes we are making with healthcare and makes them worse.
Most of what is wrong with healthcare stems from decades of
government intervention and the resulting unintended consequences.
But the government's prescription for the ills caused by intervention
is always more intervention. We see this not only in healthcare
policy, but also in foreign policy, in economic policy, and
in monetary policy -- basically, in all areas of public policy.
It was even claimed that the House bill would increase competition
in healthcare, and thereby improve the private sector's business
model for insurance.
It is fascinating that politicians would use the language of
the free market in this way to justify more corporatism. This
demonstrates a couple of things. One, that politicians truly
do not understand the very basic tenets of a free market. By
definition, a free market is free from government intervention.
But once a little intervention is accepted as legitimate, politicians
will blame the problems created by their intervention on the
free market and present themselves as saviors that must intervene
even more.
It also demonstrates that politicians know that Americans still
believe the free market is a good thing. People know and understand
that competition among businesses is better for the consumer
than a monopoly. However, competition between a private business
and a government or government-favored entity is not real competition.
In real competition, your competitor can go bankrupt if they
do a bad job. Everyone knows a government program is forever,
no matter how poorly it performs. In real competition, efficiency
is necessary for survival. In government programs, waste is
rewarded as budgets are often determined by how much money a
department is able to consume in a year. In real competition,
one business does not have regulatory or taxation authority
over its competitors. In real competition, businesses get sued
and punished for breaking contracts and defrauding people, and
are kept accountable in this way. But just try to sue the government
when you are unjustly harmed by it!
The reason real competition is a good thing is because good
businesses get bad ones out of the consumer's way. Can the government
put someone out of business? Most certainly! But it will have
the opposite effect: an otherwise good business will be replaced
by a poorly performing government agency, or a government-favored
monolithic business that behaves almost like a government agency.
If Washington really wanted to give consumers more choices
they would remove legislative and regulatory barriers to competition
across state lines for health insurers. They would remove barriers
for new and innovative models of healthcare and tort reform.
They wouldn't have run so many church and charitable hospitals
out of business. Washington is keenly interested in healthcare
reform, but it is certainly not going to increase competition
or to expand your options for healthcare.
"When the people find they can vote themselves
money, that will herald the end of the republic."
- Fall Of The Republic - Buy
the DVD here
