This podcast, Econtalk, was very basic in terms of applying simple economic thought and common sense to the health industry. While I'm sure this is shocking to most Americans in terms of what is advocated, if one simply analyzes one's first principles and universal economic laws, then the content is very standard and almost boring. While there are some minor points to nitpick, like the fact that markets are good not just because of incentives being aligned in a healthy way, but also because profits and losses are pure and untouched, this is ultimately secondary in issue. Instead, I think there is a better way to go about this issue. Instead of discussing simple arguments about the consequences of policy and evaluating them through a pseudo-utilitarian lens, we could instead discuss the moral dimension.
If the market for health care is so terribly restricted, causing some to be bankrupted or denied adequate service (harming them in their body or even killing them), then the restrictors in effect become murderers and thieves and looters. This is a strong moral claim absent in the value-free economics analysis afforded not just by the mainstream but also by the podcast that we listened to. This is a "sectarian" moral claim as well, being as not all moral systems would hold to such a view. Regardless, I and any other Christian that takes seriously the warnings and judgements rendered by the Prophets in the Old Testament will hold to the moral claim that a ruler is responsible and guilty of the evil permitted to happen in their jurisdictions.
Far from just being permitted to happen, the regulators enforce theft, looting, and murder through their very laws. In the free market, as was surmised in the podcast, people would be cared for much better than in the current system. Prices would be lower and not tied to mere geographical regions. Doctors would face the true consequences of excess and misdiagnosis, be it recourse reserved for criminals or simply exceeding costs that can be taken before turning a loss.
By preventing this natural occurrences from taking place, we are left with incorrect incentives and a heavy distortion of profit, with looters raking in profits when they should be destitute and quality doctors just making standard profit. The regulators specifically encourage malpractice and substandard policy, which harms, maims, and murders people. This is, of course, done over time, and the cause is "mixed in" and obscured. We might even call this a poison administered to people by regulators.
The more insidious consequence of the regulative system is realized when the system passes itself off as a "Free Market." In the United States, every market is seen by both foreign and domestic populations as being "Free," regardless of the books of regulations that exist in those markets. This is a trick of rhetoric and propaganda that serves to poison the idea of a Free Market, given that the Free Market is left bearing the maladies of the regulated market. To put it more bluntly, the solution to our problems in the medical market is being passed off as the problem. This too is poisonous, just of ideas.
If we are to solve our problems and improve our health and well-being, these regulations must be done away with so that good, entrepreneurial doctors and physicians can do good and bolster our health.
