Daily Archives: 27 September 2009

16 Arguments against Socialized Healthcare

As expressed by Ron Paul:

1. Assuming a “right” to medical care (or a “right” to be given any good or service for free) contradicts liberty, because government must take from one to provide for another.
2. National healthcare requires an authoritarian government.
3. The idea that quality can be achieved only by government force & taxation is an old economic fallacy.
4. Government monopolies always cause higher costs and lower quality. (ahem, post office)
5. Government does have a roll in sticking up for economic ethics and efficiency. (???)
6. Government should do no harm. Repeal the laws against competition in the medical field.
7. The debasement of our currency contributes to high prices. (Shhh! See no money printing, hear no money printing, think no money printing.)
8. Bureaucrats shouldn’t interfere with doctor-patient relationships.
9. Tax credits are a better way to help the sick.
9 1/2. Tort laws push costs higher.
10. Legalize competition. Let insurance competition across state lines.
11. Legalize competition. Long term insurance policies should be available to young.
12. Insurance should measure risk, not cover all costs. (Car insurance doesn’t cover gas.)
13. The relationship between government and medicine needs to end.
14. Imposing fines on uninsured is a huge boon for insurance companies.
15. Legalize competition. End or ease licensing. The 1910 Flexner Report closed medical schools, eliminated doctors, and tipped the field away from homeopathy.
16. Legalize competition. Remove obstacles to holistic medicine – regulations are pushed by drug companies.

See also:
What do doctors say about healthcare?

Health Care Reform Is More Corporate Welfare

By Ron Paul
Published 09/19/09

Last Wednesday the nation was riveted to the President’s speech on healthcare reform before Congress. While the President’s concern for the uninsured is no doubt sincere, his plan amounts to a magnanimous gift to the health insurance industry, despite any implications to the contrary.

For decades the insurance industry has been lobbying for mandated coverage for everyone. Imagine if the cell phone industry or the cable TV industry received such a gift from government? If government were to fine individuals simply for not buying a corporation’s product, it would be an incredible and completely unfair boon to that industry, at the expense of freedom and the free market. Yet this is what the current healthcare reform plans intend to do for the very powerful health insurance industry.

The stipulation that pre-existing conditions would have to be covered seems a small price to pay for increasing their client pool to 100% of the American people. A big red flag, however, is that they would also have immunity from lawsuits, should they fail to actually cover what they are supposedly required to cover, so these requirements on them are probably meaningless. Mandates on all citizens to be customers of theirs, however, are enforceable with fines and taxes.

Insurance providers seem to have successfully equated health insurance with health care but this is a relatively new concept. There were doctors and medicine long before there was health insurance. (Read more from campaignforliberty.com)