Why Government Doesn't Work: on Health Care

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.

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.