Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Challenge your assumptions on healthcare

When faced with deep-seated controversy, it's always a good idea to challenge your assumptions. More often than not, faulty assumptions are the root cause of the problem. Russell Roberts and Don Boudreaux lay out four questions that proponents of Obamacare have failed to ask themselves:

Why does the impending fiscal disaster known as Medicare justify increasing the role of the federal government and reducing the role of prices which are the essence of Medicare?

Why is the fact that “every other industrial nation provides universal health care coverage” considered evidence for its desirability?

Why do proponents of universal care argue that demand for health care is vertical when a major cause of the expanded use of health care over the last 40 years is the fact that so many people now pay so little out of their own pocket?

Why does there exist a widespread sense that each of us, as individuals, is incapable of — or should not be obliged to — providing for our own health-care needs in the same way that we provide for our own grocery needs, our own household-furniture needs, our own automobile-insurance needs, and many other of our needs?
UPDATE: Don't miss Holman Jenkins' brilliant expose (tongue in cheek) of the logical flaws inherent in Obamacare.

5 comments:

brodero said...

I have a pre existing condition. What should I do let the market decide or the government decide or
sink or swim on my own?

Scott Grannis said...

If the government stopped regulating the healthcare insurance market, the private sector would have figured out a solution to the pre-existing condition problem long ago. Several articles have appeared on this subject explaining how such a solution might work. I believe someone at Cato has even written a book on the subject.

brodero said...

I have read John Cochrane's report
on guaranteed renewable insurance
as an answer to this problem. I do
know one thing for certain is that
everybody will get a preexisting
condition as a result of medical
technology extending life. The
private sector needs to answer this
issue or the public will eventually
demand some government involvement.

Public Library said...

So why aren't other leaders in our Government proposing a better solution?

Why did it take Obama proposing a healthcare solution for anyone to wake up on the subject?

Maybe we should ask ourselves that before asking whether our assumptions are valid.

1. Do we have a healthcare problem?

2. Is our current healthcare situation sustainable?

3. How much time do we have before we reach a tipping point?

4. How long will it take to implement a viable solution?

brodero said...

I know government is terribly inefficient but how long must the pre existing problem
exist...you know you could just say
you are on your own....and let the
political dynamics fall were they
may....