BCT Editorial – 8/28/06

This page was last updated on August 28, 2006.

Tough mission; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 28, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Some state lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans, are looking into the possibility of bringing universal health care to Pennsylvania.”

[RWC] Any “Republican” who supports any so-called “universal health care” plan should switch party affiliation and stop the charade that he actually supports conservative principles.

“As good-intentioned as they are, the state’s 900,000 residents between the ages of 18 and 34 who don’t have such coverage had better not get their hopes up. It’s not just a matter of finding a way to fund coverage. Ideology and special-interest power will come into play as well.

“The ideological debate can’t be avoided.

“Does the state take a free-market approach through the use of vouchers or does it opt for a single-payer system, with the commonwealth taking care of things?”

[RWC] Did you note about which the editorial says the “ideological debate” will occur? It’s not should there be a state program, it’s about how taxpayers will pay for it!

The editorial author’s view of a free market is different from mine. To function properly, a free market requires people to spend money out of their own pocket. There’s no way you can honestly put “vouchers” and “free market” in the same sentence.

“But as difficult as that will be to resolve, it is minor compared to the special-interest obstacles that will have to be cleared.

“As GOP pollster Frank I. Luntz noted last year, ‘Special interests are so effective that you can kill almost anything today.’

“We hope state lawmakers can find a way to help state residents who don’t have any health-care coverage. They’ve embarked on a tough mission, though, one that might well turn out to be impossible.”

[RWC] I know this is heresy to the Times, but the best “way to help state residents who don’t have any health-care coverage” is not to increase government interference in the free market. Indeed, I believe government interference is largely responsible for the high healthcare prices we see. The best way “to help” is to end government interference such as Medicaid, Medicare, PACE, et cetera and special tax treatment for employer-based healthcare insurance. When each of us has to pay for his own healthcare out of his own pocket, we’ll be more price conscious and prices will fall.