Agoraphilia has got two great posts on heathcare here and here. These articles constitute the best primer I've seen on the issue, an issue at which it can be extremely difficult to look from an objective point of view.
New Agitator Nick Weininger has an exploration of libertarian strategy on the healthcare issue. Weininger argues against the proposal for a "compromise" by which all Americans will be required to buy basic healthcare, much the way states (well, not MY state, but 48 of them) require us to have auto insurance. A massive clip that will get my ass sued for plagiarism:
The regulatory structure will probably be skewed to suit the interests of whichever large employers and HMO's give the most money to the re-election campaigns of swing-vote congressmen. Pressure from a thousand interest groups will expand the scope of "basic" until it covers more than most low-income people, or middle-class people with pre-existing conditions, can afford. That will make the subsidies grow ever larger, or make the price controls on the insurers ever tighter, or both. So taxes will go up and insurance companies will go out of business.Furthermore, if libertarians or semi-libertarians support this sort of plan, it will get pegged as a "free market" policy, and free-market advocates will get the blame when it fails. Think of what happened to other unfree pseudo-market schemes that got this false tag: energy in California, railroads in Britain. This will accelerate, not slow down, the march toward socialism. "We've tried free-market reform", the usual batch of demagogues will cry, "and what did it get us?"
I don't know if I agree entirely. If libertarians never compromise, all they'll ever get is blue skin and sitcom characters. OK, that's an exaggeration. But it's what I worry about.
It's also entirely possible that a lot of free marketeers are much more pessimistic than we should be. Maybe the overall trend is really away from socialism. I don't know. I'm going to bed.
Posted by digamma at August 14, 2003 09:35 PM | TrackBack