Monday, September 12, 2011

I hear a steady barrage of tragic stories about our decaying health care system.  The story of Nicole Nasrallah seems entirely too typical.

1. Her family doctor retired and she cannot find one willing to take on a new patient - they are all too overwhelmed.  Since the government created a monopoly on doctor certification doctors are naturally in short supply, as are all services under a monopoly.

2. She has had the old run-around from other doctors, who made a series of excuses and refusals her most common experience.  Under a monopoly system, this is entirely expected since accountability to the customer is made unnecessary.  Further, since it is essentially illegal for pateitns to pay doctors for treatment, doctors have no incentive to help people and expand services.

3. She tried to obtain prescription painkillers to reduce her suffering while she struggled to obtain proper care yet was refused at various points.  This illustrates how a monopoly creates people who wish to avoid responsibility and accountability for decisions - "not my fault" is the rallying cry.

4. When she complains that the sytem is dysfunctional, she is referred by its political masters back into the system - a web site no less - to find a doctor.  One doctor scolded her for not having one and told her to look harder.

All this is so unnecessary and so immoral.  By removing
a) the rights of doctors to conduct their practice as they see fit (medical services are massively regulated and rationed),
b) the right of people to become doctors in the first place (the supply of doctors is rationed by government)
c) the right of patients to seek doctors of their choice, negitiate for services and agree on contract terms (doctors are not free to contract, patients are not free to contract).

In a free country, the state would have no role in health care, nor in any other aspects of the economy.  We once had a mostly free economy but it has been replaced by an increasing number of collectivist interventions in the last hundred years.

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