When reintroducing the Free Medicaid for All Program, Senator Alex Padilla said, “Every American deserves access to high-quality, affordable health care, regardless of their zip code or tax bracket”[1]. As a conservative, I agree that all Americans should have the opportunity to access affordable healthcare. Americans are going into debt over healthcare costs. One in four say they or a household member has recently struggled with paying off medical bills in the past year [2]. This needs a solution.
However, what Senator Padilla and I disagree on is the means by which we grant access to healthcare. Senator Padilla, along with many other left-leaning lawmakers, believes that healthcare is a universal human right that the government should guarantee [3]. However, when the government regulates the economy through social programs such as universal healthcare services, it tends to run like the DMV: very inefficient. A free market saves lives, not the government.
The government has the obligation to create an environment where America’s ability to access healthcare is protected. The government was created to protect from infringement on men’s rights. But when the government steps across the breach from protection to providing, it must then become the arbiter of limited resources, such as money, food, or healthcare. The government inevitably has to take something from someone else to provide that. This most often is in the form of taxes and becomes institutionalized theft [4].
Inefficiency of a government-run entity would be dangerous in a life-or-death situation. Imagine going to the DMV for an issue with your driver's license. Lines are long, service is poor, it seems like you do one process on the computer just to do it again at the front desk all over again. This is what our friends in Canada and England are facing. In Canada, patients are waiting 16 weeks to receive MRIs, perpetuating their illnesses [5]. As of August of this year, 7.41 million cases are on a waiting list for treatment in the UK [6]. Life is too fragile to be left in the hands of people who are not subject to the consumers.
When the government is involved, it either becomes the decision-maker or makes it difficult for consumers to make decisions for their own bodies. For example, the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) currently has restrictions on healthcare providers on how they should practice medicine. This keeps the customer out of the conversation of how they want treatment to be done. Studies have also shown that when restrictions are loosened and more doctors can practice independently with patients making informed decisions, the quality of healthcare stays the same and the prices are lower [7]. For example, LASIK surgery, an elective surgery, has remained relatively free from regulation. Because of the free market, the price of LASIK has lowered by 20-30% in the past ten years and has become more affordable for most Americans [8].
One might say the American populace cannot be informed enough to make well-reasoned decisions about their healthcare, especially in a life-or-death situation. However, Americans make well-informed decisions daily about major life-changing things such as insurance, housing, car payments, and more. Free market systems push culture to react in a certain way. When there is a need to know about something, Americans will find a way to be informed. Right now, in our bureaucratic healthcare system, being informed is not our focus because we have less say in our healthcare.
As of now, many Americans, especially men, could give great details on the NFL and the players in it, with about 72% of Americans watching NFL sports, with a majority claiming they are avid fans watching more than six hours a week [9]. If Americans can be as invested in their health as they are in American football, there would be no need for a ‘Big Brother’ government to make decisions for them. With free markets, the culture would shift very quickly to a society of people that would take responsibility for themselves. Innovation and competition could be credited for this. We are already seeing services such as Zocdoc, Healthgrades, and GoodRx where the average American with no medical background can research healthcare providers in a simple way [10]. I would much rather take responsibility for my health or pay someone I trust to know about my health, rather than having government bureaucracies do it for me.
Along with Senator Padilla, I want all Americans to have access to healthcare. That access can only happen through open markets and by allowing insurance to work at the hand of the consumer. With less government regulation, costs will be lower as healthcare quality rises. Together, using economics and the diligence to not allow the government to normalize institutionalized theft, we can make sure the necessary parts of our society do not run like the DMV.
