FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009
The Injustice of State Health Care
Current conceptions regarding the issue of health care revolve around confusing Morality with Justice. Morality can only mean defining what is good or best for someone or people as a whole. It is a suggestion on how to live life. As such Moral Prescripts are not enforceable through force or coercion by the State or Church. Conversely, Justice, or the law, which defends the Individual Rights of Life, Liberty, and Property is warranted in its use of force because it represents the collective rights of Individuals to use force in the defense of their Liberties. Since, as Bastiat stated, individuals cannot lawfully use force against the Person, Liberty, or Property of another, then it follows that the State then cannot logically use the Law against the Life, Liberty and Property of Individuals.
Thus the concept of usury, is a valid subject for Morality. However, under Liberty, two individuals are free to make whatever agreements they wish with relation to loans and interest rates. The problem arises when those who have a particular moral view about rates of interest seek to force their morality on others through laws. In the case of Islam, early Catholicism, and Keynes any rate of interest is wrong and should not be allowed.
Health care, whatever the term means, is no different. It is true every individual has a Right to whatever health care they chose to provide for themselves. Morally, others may add each individual should be provided some State defined level of care. This level of care is of course up to them to define and for someone else to pay for: call this Morally Defined Health Care (MDHC).
Notice, how in application, MDHC doesn’t mind destroying Justice to obtain its goals. To start with, it denies the Individual their Rights of Life and Liberty. They are not allowed under punishment of the law to prescribe medications and drugs for themselves. Those who might be self-trained in the medical field are not allowed to prescribe for them. They are forced into the Health Care system. Secondly, those who favor MDHC always ignore the fact that they are through force and coercion stealing what they want from others to pay the costs of their Morality. Force and coercion these are the hallmarks of every Government and Progressive program. What about voluntary action? What about getting the State and its thugs out of the Health Care business?
Last night I was at a fund raiser for a local charity “Hope and Home”. They are one of the top ranked foster care agencies in the nation. They were started 10-15 years ago by a group of people who felt state-run foster care was failing the children. They run without Government dollars. Their statistics for child placement, reuniting families and adoptions are far superior to any State administered program.
There is in Grand Junction a voluntary community health care program run by doctors. It ensures health care for everyone in the city. Why not more of this?
What about companies that pool resources to form their own health care systems? Why not more of these?
The bottom line is that health care insurance is a misnomer. Insurance is about specific events: a fire, a flood, an accident. Events whose costs or loses can be quantified in advance. Health care as defined today is an open pit. The costs cannot be quantified. Health care cannot stand in this manner. I believe the solution is opening the entire medical field up to competition. Abandoning the current concepts of health insurance for concepts which protect against specific risks and which have specific limits. Allowing innovative individuals to create new methods of providing medical care and defining who can administer health care. In this equation there is unlimited room for those whose vision it is to help others. Whether their vision and passion leads them to directly serve people or their vision and morality call upon them to provide financial and other support.
Life is priceless to an individual and their family. In reality, there are limits to what love and devotion can provide. Each generation of mankind is marked by families who have had to make horribly difficult and emotional decisions about how long they can support those who can no longer support themselves. These are moral decisions and rightfully belong only to each Individual and their family.