Health Care


In response to a Canadian readers question, I’ve written this post about the Libertarian view on health care.

There are three over-riding principles that govern our views:

  1. Health care is not a “right.” No one is entitled to health care. Like every other consumer product, you should pay for it yourself.
  2. Government has no business being in the health care business.
  3. The health care industry and the insurance industry should be de-regulated.  Regulation drives up costs.

Here are five must-read articles that further define our position:

Libertarian Party on Health Care
Government should not be in the health insurance business
We advocate a complete separation of medicine from the state. We oppose any government restriction or funding of medical or scientific research, including cloning. We support an end to government-provided health insurance and health care. Government’s role in any kind of insurance should only be to enforce contracts when necessary, not to dictate to insurance companies and consumers which kinds of insurance contracts they may voluntarily agree upon.

Libertarian Health Care Talking Points
Just who is responsible for the problems with America’s health care delivery system?

“Free” health care
Let’s start out by not quibbling with America’s socialists’ false claim that health-care service is a human right that people should have regardless of whether they can pay for it or not and that it should be free. Before we buy into this socialist agenda, we might check out just what happens when health-care services are “free.” Let’s look at our neighbor to the north — Canada.

Why not real health care reform?
The president and Congress are debating a “Patient’s Bill of Rights,” arguing over how to force Health Maintenance Organizations to treat their customers nicely.

Let’s Make Health Care Inexpensive Again
The politicians are pushing to raise the cost of your health insurance again.

Of course, that’s not how they describe what they’re doing. They claim to be exercising compassion when they propose to force insurance companies to include mental illness in every health-insurance policy.

The last article is probably the most important. There was a time (within my lifetime) when average Americans could afford to pay for their own health care. They could contract with their individual doctor to pay whatever the doctor and patient thought was a fair price for the service provided. (I happen to go to a doctor right now who still feels this way, he doesn’t deal with insurance companies.) The only health care insurance you needed was for “catastorphic loss.” BC/BS provided “major medical” insurance to cover hospital stays and lengthy illnesses.

Then the government got involved and health care costs sky-rocketed.

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