What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry
I have pointed to many issues with healthcare here on this blog over the last several years. I have written countless articles to help everyone get a full view of the issues. We need healthcare reform. We don't need what we had forced upon us. Perhaps another point of view will help drive this point home.
What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry by Vijay Boyapati
On May 3, 2010, I gave a talk to a class of students studying public health policy at the University of Washington. I began the talk by asking the students how many of them believed that the current healthcare system in America was flawed; everyone in the class raised their hand. I then asked how many of them believed that the recently passed healthcare legislation, supported by President Obama, was a step in the right direction in reforming America's healthcare system. Once again, everyone raised their hand.
While I agreed with the students on the first point, I disagreed that the recently passed legislation was a step in the right direction. My aim in giving the talk was to present the students with a consistent, libertarian, free-market perspective on healthcare reform, covering both the morality and the economics of why it would be desirable to eliminate government interference in the market.
The Morality of Healthcare Reform
One of the most important factors animating the libertarian rejection of public policy in general is the recognition that any state action must ultimately resort to the use or threat of aggression. As Ludwig von Mises observed,
It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.[1]
Libertarians who value justice and recognize that the use of aggression cannot be logically justified must reject all state action in principle – this includes the use of aggression in implementing healthcare policy.[2]
Go Read the rest.
What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry by Vijay Boyapati
On May 3, 2010, I gave a talk to a class of students studying public health policy at the University of Washington. I began the talk by asking the students how many of them believed that the current healthcare system in America was flawed; everyone in the class raised their hand. I then asked how many of them believed that the recently passed healthcare legislation, supported by President Obama, was a step in the right direction in reforming America's healthcare system. Once again, everyone raised their hand.
While I agreed with the students on the first point, I disagreed that the recently passed legislation was a step in the right direction. My aim in giving the talk was to present the students with a consistent, libertarian, free-market perspective on healthcare reform, covering both the morality and the economics of why it would be desirable to eliminate government interference in the market.
The Morality of Healthcare Reform
One of the most important factors animating the libertarian rejection of public policy in general is the recognition that any state action must ultimately resort to the use or threat of aggression. As Ludwig von Mises observed,
It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.[1]
Libertarians who value justice and recognize that the use of aggression cannot be logically justified must reject all state action in principle – this includes the use of aggression in implementing healthcare policy.[2]
Go Read the rest.
posted by ablur at 8/03/2010 06:55:00 PM
1 Comments:
Aggression there WILL be, though.
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