Harry Browne on Health Care 2000 Libertarian Nominee for President

Patient Rights only needed because of govt HMO subsidies

In 1973 Congress passed the HMO Act-which subsidized HMOs and forced any company providing employee health insurance to offer an HMO as an option. This requirement was finally repealed in 1995, but by that time the government’s favored treatment had made HMOs the centerpiece of employer-sponsored health programs.

Once again, the politicians are seizing the opportunity to rescue us from their own handiwork.

Assisted suicide is a state issue, not federal

A: Browne would veto, on federal-state grounds. The 9th & 10th Amendments prohibit the federal government from taking on a lot of functions. A Browne presidency would include a lot of vetoes, in support of those Amendments.

Encourage AIDS cure by getting govt out of AIDS research

A: I don’t believe it should have any. All of the really great advances that have taken place in science and medicine have taken place outside the government, with maybe the exception of the Manhattan Project. The first polio vaccine was developed privately, and the government vaccine came a few years later. And the money that goes through the government for research becomes political. And I can only imagine that if you didn’t have government soaking up so much research money, if you didn’t have people pressuring companies, if you didn’t have these amazing litigation liabilities, a cure for AIDS might have been found five or ten years ago. We need to get the government out of these things, because there is a tremendous demand for these cures -- not just for AIDS, but for cancer, heart disease, etc. Government cannot speed up the process. It can only slow it down.

Get government out of health care & costs will plummet

Prescription rules should be controlled by states, not FDA

FDA has caused needless deaths by delaying medications

Doctors & insurers should regulate drugs, not FDA

Against tobacco lawsuits funding more health programs

Abolish FDA; get govt out of health care

Medicare has caused higher health costs

1992 Health Plan all about coercion, not compassion

But coercion is nothing new in government-run health care, Medicare already has plenty of fines and penalties. The health care debate has ignored the most important factor: government involvement in health care means forcing people and institutions to do what they don’t want to do. And such plans never work out as promised.

Government can improve health care by getting out of it

Government can help the health-care system only by getting out of it. It has no more ability to make us well than it does to make us rich. Here’s a laundry list of things to be washed out:
1. Abolish the FDA. Let people decide for themselves, with the help of their doctors and private testing agencies they choose for themselves, which medicines are safe enough for them.
2. Save Medicare by turning it over to private companies. Let seniors pick their own polices. Let them earn as much money as they want without losing benefits.
3. Abolish Medicaid. Let each state’s citizens decide for themselves whether they want a government program to provide health care to the needy.
4. Solve the portability problem by making all medical expenses totally deductible from taxable income.
5. Get state governments to stop imposing conditions on health insurance. Don’t require individuals to pay for benefits they don’t want. Don’t force insurance companies to take customers they don’t want.