PrintSeptember 7, 2009
Why Should We Want Politicians To Redesign Our Healthcare?
The first question we should be asking in the healthcare debate is: Why should anyone think that politicians would do a better job redesigning our healthcare than the free market?After all, politicians have helped create the problems (healthcare costs increasing at an unsustainable rate and a growing number of uninsured) that politicians now are in a hurry to try to fix. For example:Tax subsidies for employer-purchased insurance have encouraged the overconsumption of healthcare (because many employers have purchased insurance tantamount to prepaid healthcare), limited employees' choice of insurance plans to whatever the employer offers, and required employees to switch plans (and sometimes lose coverage) when changing jobs.The medical liability system has encouraged healthcare providers to practice defensive medicine (i.e., order procedures and make referrals primarily to avoid liability for malpractice rather than to benefit patients) amounting to an estimated 8-15% of total...(Read Full Article)
