Liberals and Progressives have religious faith in government-run health care systems. I am sure, if left to their own ends, they would much rather prefer we adopt a single-payer system similar to the systems in the UK and Canada. Political necessity only permits a foot-in-the-door policy that mandates health care insurance for everyone. While these systems aren’t as inefficient as the top-down single-payer systems (such as Medicare), the current bills passed in the House and Senate impose the heavy hand of the State into almost every dark corner of the health care system in America.
These government fundamentalists march to the canon and cry of the efficiency of government-run systems and mock for-profit systems for being inefficient and wasteful. Yet there is no area of economic activity that the government operates efficiently precisely because of the lack of discipline present in for-profit ventures. The USPS just announced they lost $238 million in 2009. Fedex and UPS were profitable.
The shibboleth of the inefficiency of capitalism has so often been proven wrong by economists on all sides of the spectrum that one can only conclude that these free market deniers are worse than ignorant: they choose power over efficiency. And that is what Hayek called “The Road to Serfdom.” After all, it was the Marxists and Socialists who proved by their failures that the free market works.
It is useless to appeal to reason to these fundamentalists. Their quest for power is an end in itself and they won’t relent.
What to do?
My suggestion is that we should use scare tactics and create an environment of fear and doubt about government health care plans. This is fair since Liberals and Progressives have been spreading falsehoods about the free market system for a hundred years. We have an advantage: we don’t have to lie. The truth is scary enough.
Here are two frightening and disgusting articles that demonstrate what I am talking about. Don’t tell me it couldn’t happen here.
You might find this first article disturbing.
1,200 Needless Deaths
By Fay Schlesinger, Andy Dolan and Tim Shipman
Last updated at 1:45 PM on 25th February 2010
- Up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily because of appalling care
- Labour’s obsession with targets and box ticking blamed for scandal
- Patients were ‘routinely neglected’ at hospital
- Report calls for FOURTH investigation into scandal
Not a single official has been disciplined over the worst-ever NHS hospital scandal, it emerged last night.
Up to 1,200 people lost their lives needlessly because Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust put government targets and cost-cutting ahead of patient care.
But none of the doctors, nurses and managers who failed them has suffered any formal sanction. … Continue reading Government-Run Health Care Kills Thousands
