I will discuss Health Care elsewhere in this web site.  But here I would like to focus on Medicare, Medicaid, and Prescription Drugs.  Why do I object to these programs?  After all, don’t they help the elderly and poor?   

Like all government programs first and foremost they involve robbing at gunpoint citizens to turn around and give to others (redistributing wealth).  But government always takes a hefty cut of the loot before any ever gets to the supposed intended recipients.   

Two, there is no incentive to ever control costs of the process, because government can always steal more taxes.   So costs go up.  Government adds regulations, and costs go up further.

Government programs always try to control every aspect that falls under the view of the administrators of that government program.  There is always only one way with the government, the government way.  All other ways are illegal, prohibited, fined and crushed.  Monopoly is the name of the game, so you must come to government for a former free market need.   

In the end the process, not the product, is the only thing of importance to the government.  Actual results do not mean anything, only intent and control. 

What this means for Medicare was the capture of health care, an enormous chunk of the economy placed under fascist control.  The government line is that escalating costs were not because of government monopoly (and therefore, lack of competition), but because of lack of government regulation. 

When government regulations exacerbate the costs, the solution is more government regulation.  Until finally government becomes the sole provider. 

Then when this fails, government rations, because there is only so much of commodity "X" that the government controls.  Government OAFicials and the well connected get all of "X" they could want; you get to divide up the rest. 

In the end, Medicare will fail.  Medicaid will fail.  Free Prescription Drugs will fail.  Because the costs are unacceptably high for the taxpayers to bear, and the government product will be crappy (can you say Soviet Union).  When that collapse occurs, pray you are neither very old, nor in need of health care, because the next few years will be a transition from government medicine to the free market.  Whether this occurs by popular acclaim or at the point of a gun is hard to say. 

Regrettably, the politicians responsible for this vote buying scheme of cradle to grave security will probably die peacefully  in their beds at a rather comfortable and healthy old age, rather than soon dangling at the end of a short rope.  

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This was an article I wrote for the Western Libertarian Alliance Election issue newspaper:

Here fishy, fishy, fishy

by

Powell Gammill

  

Health Care.  Such a deal!  I will be taken care of by my fellow citizens (through their violently extracted compulsory tax) for all my illnesses from cradle to grave.  Sure is nice of all you suckers. 

It all starts with Medicare and fishing.  When Medicare was first started by the government, doctors had private practices and made a very good living, and patients adored and admired physicians.  It was close to worship.  Doctors had two kinds of patients, those they charged their normal visitation fee, for the purposes of example let us say $20, and now Medicare patients, whom the government reimbursed the doctor for at say $35 a visit.   Trolling.  Boy, that sure seemed like a good deal to the doctors, and the patient did not mind because the generous, benevolent government was paying for it, and "caring for the disadvantaged" (taxpayer's burden). Fish bites.   

Of course once the hook was set, the government came to those doctors and said, "Hey, you are ripping off the taxpayers.  You must charge Medicare patients and non-Medicare patients the same price."  So doctors, being no dummies, chose to raise the fees of their non-Medicare patients, rather than take less of what the government was offering to pay for Medicare patient visitors.  Reel 'em in.   

Now doctors, being prominent members of the community, and actually relating to their patients — a patient was seen by the doctor in those days, not a screener — a doctor would actually know many of their patients by name.  That is how things were just some thirty years ago.  That made doctors a powerful force in the community.  And a force that threatened government, by creating a natural rallying point for the peasants. 

So we have equalized visitation fees for patients, can equalizing all charges for all patients be far behind?  Physicians frequently gave discounts to patients who could not afford to pay for the doctor's services.  So the doctor discounted or even eliminated his charges to his patient who could not otherwise afford them.  Government then stepped in, and demanded Medicare patients be charged the same rate as the lowest rate offered by a physician to a non-Medicare patient.  Meanwhile the costs of Medicare start to rise exorbitantly.  In part this was because physicians were having to direct poorer patients into the Medicare programs, if they wished to continue being his (or any physician's) patient.  That fish is getting tired, and is reeling in just fine now.  Government was also offering physicians a carrot, in higher procedure fee rates than they normally charged.

Of course doctors were having to fill out more paperwork.  A lot more paperwork.  Even medical insurance companies were increasing the physician paperwork load.  With the increasing costs to the non-Medicare patient, the cessation of non-government sponsored treatment for those who cannot afford medical care, and the need to see more patients per day to cover increased costs, and spend less time with each patient to allow time to complete paperwork, came the tarnishing of the medical community.  And a new phenomenon.  Suits being brought by lawyers against doctors, and juries bringing in ever increasing monetary damages against doctors and hospitals.  Malpractice insurance went from a few dollars a year, to thousands of dollars a year (and it is now thousands of dollars a month or even completely unavailable), forcing doctors into coops with each other either in hospitals or a newly emerging phenomenon, HMOs, who supplied the group malpractice insurance.   

Sooner or later the pot of gold starts to look empty, and the supply starts to dwindle.  Cost containment of the health care industry became the mantra.  Government was there, both as the cause of the escalating costs and ready to supply the cure:  Let government completely take over health care as the only way to assure health care for everyone . . . even though everyone had access to health care long before the government got involved.   

Soon you had doctors being told they were overcharging for procedures, and told what the proper charge was.  Those doctors who decided this was not enough compensation for any given procedure stopped doing the procedure, forcing patients to seek elsewhere for a physician who would do a procedure, and adding to those physician's patient loads since the option of raising price to meet the demand was not available.   

You also had doctors being charged with performing unnecessary procedures.  Someone with a high school education was questioning your doctor's medical treatment of you!  And denying that treatment. 

Physicians were going to jail for supposedly gouging the health care system.  Oh that fish might renew the fight when it finally gets dragged from the water.  But with the preparation and years of practice by the angler, it is not likely the fish is going to escape its fate. 

HMOs now come with a negotiated low visitation fee. The result, every hypochondriac with the sniffles is waiting ahead of you in the waiting room to see the doctor because it doesn't cost anything.  Government has mandated that emergency rooms must see any patient that comes to their doorway, even if there is no emergency.  The result is the poor now go to the ER for their sniffles and when you show up there are usually over 300 people waiting in any ER waiting room.  And even with triage (unless you are dying) it is a long wait.  When you are an ER staff, who wants to see people who really do not need your services when so many people do?  The result is poor staff morale and rapid burn-out.  Care to venture why there is a nursing shortage?