On Mandated Healthcare

Posted Sun Feb 7, 2010 in

There is no hiding that I am adamantly opposed to the health care proposition as currently stated in the Congress of the United States. In my opinion, it is a move toward the socialization of medical services and I am opposed to socialism in any form. In fact, I’m afraid that particular cat (socialism) is out of the bag when I wish the sumbitch had been drowned!

But, before I get on a tear (which can happen these days), I thought I would share this link to openmarket.org — an interesting site for those of libertarian philosophy.

There is some good logic in the piece and a solid argument for why it is overreaching for the federal government to require American citizens to buy health insurance. The State of Virginia is drawing a line in the sand and preparing for a challenge to the federal legislation, if it makes it through the process.

There is no doubt in my little pea brain we need healthcare reform. But the current legislation is overreaching. It’s too big and I see the potential for the law of unintended side effects (or consequences) hanging out all over the place. I would suggest a much smaller approach, dealing with one problem at a time1.

A good first step would be the elimination of the pre-existing condition clause present in most policies. There are two ways to accomplish this: 1) An outright ban on the condition or 2) encouragement of competition between companies that would reduce the fiscal benefit to insurers to have the policy.

Another important component is to control costs by developing malpractice reform. Malpractice insurance costs a buttload of money. (I know because my firm carries malpractice insurance — it must.) If the costs associated with malpractice were limited (and perhaps a more direct approach is pulling the license of someone convicted of malpractice), then costs would be reduced. A second important approach is to encourage competition among insurers (again) by opening the market such that it wasn’t bounded by state lines. The states should get involved in this.

There are other issues I’m not so conversant with. But, I think a lot of them should be handled at the state or local level. The funds to pay for the programs should come from the state or local level. The federal government is too big and too involved in the lives of American citizens.

Get out.

1 I firmly believe the unix philosophy of simple, single-purpose tools. This complies with the principle contained in Occam’s Razor.