If we were back in college right now, I'd have plenty of time to write out a long, detailed argument against government-run health care. I would spend paragraphs explaining how the "public option" that Mr. Obama is pushing for would slowly but surely crowd out the private sector by forcing taxpayers to subsidize a "free" plan that private insurers wouldn't be able to compete with. And I would demonstrate how the real problem in this country is that too many people have too much insurance, and not the other way around like we always hear.
Whenever the vast majority of decisions are made by third parties (whether those third parties are insurance companies or government bureaucrats), markets aren't permitted to function. It's like if your car insurance policy covered your oil changes and all of your fill-ups at the gas pump: you wouldn't care how much these things cost because you're not paying for them, so you'd consume as much as possible while prices spiral out of control (the same is true, by the way, with college tuition - costs skyrocket as kids spend 5-6 years in undergrad because they aren't paying for their education; parents, federal grants, and subsidies are). Meanwhile, doctors spend most of their time dealing with needless paperwork and fighting with HMO's and insurers instead of doing what they entered the profession for in the first place: focusing on the needs of their patients. That is the fundamental problem with our health care system.
But thanks to ABC's John Stossel, I don't even need to make the case. Because he's already done it for me, in this superb hour-long special on 20/20:
1 comment:
That's an eye-opener. Thanks for sharing.
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