Healthcare

As early as last May, barely two months after the start of the state lockdown, a New York Post columnist groused: “So Gov. Andrew Cuomo killed Grandma and cratered New York’s economy. But he looked good doing it.”

It’s time to stop listening to Fauci, and time to stop treating his wildly inconsistent political posturing as if it carries any scientific authority.

Those who prefer government management of medicine have a wider agenda: they hate the idea of a free market in medicine because they hate the idea of free markets in anything.

The only reason that the commentators are bewailing the “staggering difficulties” of getting everyone vaccinated is that they never dream of putting the vaccine on the free market.

This has been a year of astonishing policy failure. We are surrounded by devastation conceived and cheered by intellectuals and their political handmaidens.

Under real capitalism, there is no government policy at all regarding how people are to conduct themselves in a pandemic. With no barriers to innovation, production, and distribution, the pharmaceutical industry would be rocketing us into an almost disease-free future.

What do the Great Depression and the Second World War have in common with the coronavirus crisis of 2020? They have all been caused by government! 

The term “socialized medicine” is never used. Instead we hear demands for “universal,” “mandatory,” “single-payer,” and/or “comprehensive” systems.

Abolish the FDA. Repeal medical licensing.

The kind of reasoning that underpins the tired old asymmetric information bogeyman in health care falls straight into the behavioral symmetry between market participants and policy makers that is a core contribution of modern public choice economics: it is not believable to submit that governments have magic wands.

As for Medicare for All, the COVID-19 crisis in Canada has shown the brutal consequences of government-run health care: shortages just when you need care the most.

We need new drugs to fight COVID-19 and other diseases. But our government’s approval process makes that too hard.

The COVID-19 crisis is the result of decades of FDA rule.

Because nobody had an incentive to stockpile PPE or other medical equipment.

Three simple reforms: (1) posted prices for procedures; (2) Goodman-esque health savings accounts and high-deductible insurance; (3) age rather than community rating.

Why weren’t there enough Wuhan Corona Virus (COVID-19) tests? Because our government insists on control of medical innovation.

Highly restrictive government regulations have had the unintended consequence of shutting down tests that could detect outbreaks and save lives.

The South Korean government has brought about superior outcomes than the much heavier handed, authoritarian measures of China, Italy, the U.S., and virtually every other afflicted nation. 

In order for government to provide medical services to someone who cannot afford it, it must use intimidation, threats, and coercion to take the earnings of another American to provide that service.

In health care, and all fields, it’s better to see what competition can do rather than letting the government and its cronies decide what to allow.