Who Should Control Your Health Care? You or Politicians?

One of the hottest issues of the day is health care. The following commercial is encouraging to anyone who believes in sensible state policy. Why? It's a demonstration that people who understand that markets work are fighting against the lure of government-run health care.






Did I just say "lure of government-run health care?" When you consider the service provide by many government agencies, you have to wonder.

Granted, some private companies in the health care sector leave much to be desired. One reason: they're sheltered from competitive forces through government policies that encourage consolidation and favor everyone but individuals have control over individual lives.

The alternative to government-run health care isn't the status quo. It's the same thing that we use to rely on improvements in most areas of life: consumer control and sovereignty.

The video points out that in Canada, government rations the delivery of health care. Truth be told, there's always going to be rationing in health care--just as there is rationing in the delivery of cars, electronics, food, housing ... just about anything you can name.

In a free society, the price of a good or service serves a rationing function. "Yeah, I'd like that Mustang, but I think I'll stick with my 12-year old Civic." The fact that something is related to health doesn't mean that we should do away with the price mechanism, along with competition among service providers.

If you want to do something about the fact that health care is sometimes--not always--a matter of life and death, the answer is not to turn it completely over to the dictates of planners, but to offer monetary subsidies to the poorest of the poor. For example, we have government hand out food stamps--not force everyone to purchase food through a government-run grocery store.

Let prices work!

For more on the subject, see the National Center for Policy Analysis, Consumers for Health Care Choices, and State House Call.

Labels: Health care

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