Posted by Anthony Gregory on 09/10/09 10:20 PM Last updated 09/10/09 1:35 PM   [Newer: Is Mandated Insurance Constitutional? ] [Older: The Decline of American Unions]

Obama is right that there are a lot of problems with America's health care system, but what is the source of the problems? In the 1960s, more than 80% of Americans had health insurance, and most of those who didn't saw no need for it, since health services were quite inexpensive. Doctors did house calls. Medications were affordable. A hospital visit cost a few days' pay, not a month's or year's pay.

This superior system could be restored, if only the government got out of the way. Phase out Medicare, Madicaid, subsidies, licensing and the FDA and we'd be a much healthier nation.

Medicare and Medicaid are unsustainable at the current time, as Obama points out, but why expand this socialism to the rest of America's health care system? He notes that when someone uninsured goes to the hospital, we all pay, but this is the result of government subsidizing health care in the first place.

Although the president says we should tweak the current system, rather than build a new health care system "from scratch," this would just leave in place the hybrid corporatist-socialist system that has driven up costs. Indeed, mandating insurance, which is morally and constitutionally repugnant, is a great way to shore up the corporate state, which is why the insurance industry is behind Obama's plan.

Obama says some on the right want to eliminate employer-based insurance. Well, I haven't heard many suggest this, but employer-based insurance is indeed one of the major problems here. As critics of the status quo point out, employees fear they will lose their coverage if they change or lose their jobs. This is a big problem. Distortions in the tax code make it profitable for businesses to treat health insurance as part of their workers' compensation, since it isn't taxed as income is.

How can it be addressed? We must understand what has caused these distortions. We have a modern health care maze brought about by regulation, tax structures and government interventions. In the 1970s, HMOs were forced upon businesses as an option, and soon these institutions were demonized, though the government gave them their power. Nowadays, health consumers are separated from the cost of their health care needs, which drives up prices and inflated demand. Providers bill insurance companies, who operated under a zillion mandates as to what they must provide their customers. This whole mess must be fundamentally addressed if we are to solve America's health care crisis.

We do have major problems in the health care sector, but Obama is wrong when he says he plans to be the last president to address them. A fully blown socialist model looks like it's off the table, which means any "reform" will contribute to the corporatist status quo, only make it worse, lead to rationing, worse service and higher costs. Of course, a full socialist solution would be much worse. But if we get the "compromise" that appears to be emerging, it will only exacerbate all the problems and lead to more calls for a full government takeover. Ludwig von Mises identified this vicious cycle of one intervention begetting more intervention, and unless we defeat the Obama plan root and branch, we will soon be on the road to medical Serfdom.

Posted 09/10/09 2:28 PM David Elton Seattle, WA

I'm wondering if anyone can lead me to some solid information that shows that the insurance company and special interests are behind Obama's plan? When I'm discussing this with friends, it would be good to know where this is coming from. I see people refer to it here, but I haven't actually seen anything solid backing it up, though I'm not skeptical of it's truth.

Posted 09/10/09 3:27 PM Anthony Gregory Berkeley, CA

David, see this blog: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=23556&cpg=1

Posted 09/10/09 3:48 PM David Elton Seattle, WA

Thank you Anthony. That was exactly what I was looking for.

Posted 09/10/09 4:12 PM VictimOfFeds San Clemente, CA

Obama suggested last night that cutting out the waste in Medicare and Medicaid would pay for his plan. I guess in his mind, saving part of what you stole is free. He probably also has it in his mind that his government plan would not incur the same kind of waste that those two previous government plans did. "Dear Investor, I can create a video game so great that the entire world will play it. It will make more money than WOW ever did. On top of that, it will only take me a week! How could you possibly pass that up!"

Posted 09/10/09 5:15 PM JohnF Lake Mary, FL

I really hope they don't force people into the system and fine them if they don't comply. I'm not going to comply, and I don't have a lot of money to pay fines so I guess I'll have to go to jail. I don't want to face this choice. I really, really don't want to take benefits from the government...

Posted 09/10/09 6:36 PM huntingtonsteam Huntington Beach, CA

Things have changed since the 1960's. Such as in the country has had nearly all industry stripped out of it and sent to slave labor countries like China, India, etc. I remember the 60's when Ford made mustangs in San Jose, Ca. I remember when the steel industry was booming in Pennsylvania. I remember when clothes were made in a garment industry in the South. But a Republican Pres. named Bush got it all shipped out of the country in the late 80s. You know why Medicare worked? Because the US had a huge industrial base and Medicaid got paid for. But things have changed if you haven't noticed. And I don't hear any of you Ludwig von Mises guys saying the Reps in Washington DC should be doing something to save the most successful health care this country ever had, Medicare. It saved a lot of older people and gave them long, healthy good lives. But the country could afford it then. Now, with a deindustrialized country, where is the tax base for sustaining it? You are right , it is not currently sustainable. Whose fault is that? Your Reps in Washington gave you globalism, free trade agreements, and they did away with tariffs. Not to mention that reprobate puppet president Bill Clinton, with the Rhodes scholar who made internationalists like Rockefeller, Rothschild, Schiff and Warburg and others the world over happy no doubt with his free trade globalism. Thanks to them there are no more jobs in the USA. Our standard of living is 1/3 of what it was in the 60's, and all with thanks to the treason of the foundation, Big Money Trust, CFR, Bilderberger funded dead ass Reps and Puppet Presidents who hold office in Washington DC and who expect us citizens to kiss their sorry puppet asses because they think they are gods. When they are all roasting in Hells oven as their eternal reward where the good Lord will no doubt put them than maybe they'll wish they had lived differently and discover they are not gods. You can thank the Big Rich who own the Fed Reserve for destroying the middle class in this country and bringing us to the place where Obama has us considering euthanizing the elderly. I can tell you who needs euthanizing and its not your grandma and grandpa. Try the stockholders of the Fed Reserve and the above mentioned owners of the Big Money Trusts and see if they'll take the euthansia poison pill first. I remember the story Jesus told of the rich man and the poor beggar lazarus. Well I equate the Big Rich who own the Fed, the Big Rich who own the Rockefeller trust, all the other tax exempt Trusts owners , those people are the same as the rich man in the story Jesus told. And I think those people have the same exact fate as the rich man, i.e. they will spend eternity suffering in a place of torment and fire because they didn't believe they had an obligation to believe Jesus or help the poor beggar lazarus types in their life. There is enough wealth sitting in those tax exempt Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Trust, Gugenheim Foundation, and every other big money trust owned by the Big Rich families to fund healthcare from now to when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth. Plus all the interest the Fed charges us for printing up our money out of nothing. All the taxes collected goes to pay that interest to the Fed as I understand it and I am sure a big chunk of that ends up in the pockets of the Big Rich Fed owners. If we had that money back paying for healthcare would be no problem. It is only the Mafia grip of the Big Rich families on the Washington Reps and Senators that keeps this country in a state of arrested developement. Which is why it is so necessary to get HR 1207 passed.

Posted 09/10/09 7:04 PM Fu Manchu Belleville, MI

Excellent as always Anthony

Posted 09/10/09 7:39 PM usapatriot Milton, VT

David, PHRMA, the chief lobbying group for the pharmaceutical industry is on board with Obama's plans. From their web page: http://www.phrma.org/news_room/press_releases/comprehensive_health_care _reform_should_be_national_priority/ "We agree with President Obama: every American should have access to high-quality, affordable health care coverage and services." "Achieving bipartisan, comprehensive health care reform this year should be a national priority. This is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a real difference." For them, health care "reform" means millions of new customers for their products, all funded by the U.S. taxpayer. Oh, but they've promised $80 billion in discounts as a "cost cutting" measure to help out President Obama! The fine print is that the discounts apply only to brand name meds, it's spread over 10 years, and is a drop in the bucket when you consider that the top 10 pharmaceutical companies all have annual revenues which top $20B.

Posted 09/11/09 08:55 AM chuckmc Ironton, MO

A government solution is the horror. I have been a provider of medicaid- and it is the absolute worst way to deliver health care. As a start scrap it all! Especially health insurance. Anytime you put a middleman between you and your provider, you lose tons of evaporated money. Get rid of Medicaid and medicare, grandfathering in those who are retired and have paid their way. These programs are hugely wasteful and are full of corruption. Start health savings accounts. If everytime you go to the doctor, YOU are responsible, there will be less emergency room band aids and poison ivy treatments done. Plus this is an incentive to lead a healthy life. Reform our legal system. A doctor who is expected to behave like god, will charge god-like prices. A dip$hit living off of welfare, drinking himself to liver failure, smoking himself to cancer, eating himself to obesity and heart disease, does not deserve $half million treatments, to extend his life for 1 year, at our expense. That's the one part of Obama's plan, although he didn't mean it this way, that I agree with. End of life counselling.

Posted 09/11/09 09:22 AM tigrachkn vero beach, FL

everyone:(first,please excuse my typing;i'm part of the population that didn't grow up with computers)you all have brought out the staggering,interwoven,multilayered assortment of factors which have led to our current state of affairs.it's all so hard to get a handle on to try to solve(if you want to feel depressed,consider how intractable many problems are even when the causes are few,known,and agreed upon). yes,it can't be over emphasized that corporatism(mercantilism,statism,political entrepreneurship)-collusion between large corporate interests and government entities is one of the hugest parts of the mess.two serious problems with corporatism come to mind:it grossly disrupts the balance of power that makes pure free market capitalism work by eliminating the individual's ace in the hole-his power as a customer/consumer-also,the less informed amoung us(and,unfortunately,these include people who have ascended tall ladders of higher education)make the crucial error of mistaking the state/corporate collusion as capitalism and vilify it. high level economists,professors,the press,and the usual assortment of benevolent but completely misguided idealists out there participate in this misunderstanding and are cheered on and utilized by the more machiavellian proponents of those policies which destroying health care and everything else that relates to strength,autonomy,dynamism,motivation of america's citizens.how do we make enough of us understand these things and then find ways to overwhelm the leftist elite without our own leaders,whoever they may be in this process,also succombing to the predictable flaws that develop in people who have power?(as someone pointed out,supposed partners,republican sellouts,totally failed to implement policies that encourage the sort of system we who are on this blog would like to build and thrive in with our fellow citizens).thanks

Posted 09/11/09 09:31 AM huntingtonsteam Huntington Beach, CA

Let me see you get treatment for a serious disease with your "health savings account". There'll be just enough money in it to pay for your diagnosis and then they'll let you die under a brige somewhere in the land of the free and home of the poor wage slaves because your "health savings account" doesn't have the money in it for your treatments. Let the market decide your healthcare and you'll end up dead. Just like they lied to us about the market deciding jobs in the USA when the market is totally rigged and controlled by Wall Street, the Fed owners and the Big Rich. The market therefore will wave goodbye to you as you lay under the bridge dying from your diagnosed and untreated disease and the market owners drive past you in there brand new government motors automobile that you paid for.

Posted 09/11/09 11:07 AM jwfox1965 Las Vegas, NV

I keep thinking of what it would look like if there were provisions in place to completely "opt out" of government health care all together 1.) Not eligible to receive medical treatment that you cannot pay for ... AT ALL 2.) Not required to fund public health care programs ... AT ALL 3.) Not eligible to participate in public health programs ... AT ALL From the Provisioning side 1.) a network of physicians, clinics, hospitals, etc.., that do not accept government health insurance ... AT ALL 2.) patients must be a member of the network to receive treatment and pay premiums for catastrophic health care insurance. 3.) all routine transactions are on a cash basis 4.) private health care networks are deregulated and members much sign waivers to the effect that they understand this (think "private health care club"). Let everyone else that wants to "opt in" to government health care foot the public health care programs bill between them (make it an option on tax forms, yes-no). I wonder what the results of such a system would be....

Posted 09/11/09 7:06 PM mkopp27 Santa Clarita, CA

Mr. Gregory, Thank you for a well-written article, but thank you SO MUCH more for the link to the best essay I've ever read on the history of the American healthcare system. (For those of you who didn't click the 'modern health care maze' link, DO IT NOW!!! You will find a thorough and easily understandable piece of literature that logically supports all its points against a government-run, universal health plan "option.") Thank you for bringing this document to our attention. I will be sharing it with my friends and family in the hopes that they too will see through the holes in the proposed legislation simply by looking into our past. In Liberty, M Kopp

Posted 09/11/09 7:56 PM mkopp27 Santa Clarita, CA

Mr. Gregory, Thank you for a well-written article, but thank you SO MUCH more for the link to the best essay I've ever read on the history of the American healthcare system. (For those of you who didn't click the 'modern health care maze' link, DO IT NOW!!! You will find a thorough and easily understandable piece of literature that logically supports all its points against a government-run, universal health plan "option.") Thank you for bringing this document to our attention. I will be sharing it with my friends and family in the hopes that they too will see through the holes in the proposed legislation simply by looking into our past. In Liberty, M Kopp

Posted 09/14/09 03:10 AM MotorMouse vancouver, WA

People, I know there is a lot to talk about, but I hope you will give serious consideration to this: WE NEED A NAME. WE NEED A PUBLIC FACE. I have noticed the press and politicians are truly BAFFLED by the revolution going on all around them. They are struggling to define us. (label us maybe a better word). This is how society relates to things. I know we defy pigeon holing, that's what we are. Diverse people with the same goal. LIBERTY! But we should find a name (or label) that defines us accurately or the press will do it for us. (And it won't be flattering). Nobody has seen a TRUE grassroots movement for a long time, and don't understand what's really happening. Thanks for listening. (the mouse)