Socialism fails, liberty provides

  Presidential candidates continue to advocate more government intervention in health care. Following their lead, many individuals call for more socialism in this extremely important area as if there were no consequences. However, since government entered the picture, health care costs have risen astronomically.

  Socialism, by definition, is the ownership and/or control of the factors of production. In other words, laws are passed, as was recently done by the Arizona Legislature in regard to the awful disease of autism, to force individuals to provide certain types of health care.

  No matter what the medical condition, though, passing laws forcing individuals to provide anything is not correct and gives approval to the initiation of force upon others. Force is only to be used to defend oneself, not promote it.

  Eventually, as a result of more laws forcing individuals to provide medical care, many unintended consequences pop up. One is that the patient no longer has the freedom to choose who will provide needed medical care.

  Laws forcing employers and insurance companies to pay for health care increases the costs of health care due to the increased demand, just like what happens when laws are passed to force individuals to purchase auto liability insurance.

  As a result employers and insurance companies must remove themselves from the market, leaving either only the major companies or government to provide the coverage.

  If government must pay, then the bureaucratic process decides who provides and who receives health care. If the major companies must pay, government still dictates through the control it has over the market, leaving less room for the individual to switch from one health care provider to another.

  Likewise, health care providers can no longer choose their patients. Because of the increased demand for medical services made "free" by government, health care providers become overbooked and overworked and lines for health care services (wait time) increase.

  Pretty soon health care providers get paid no matter what they did or how well the health care was provided. Caring is lost in the process, increasing the cost of health care even further through poor performance.

  In societies where government runs health care in its entirety (socialized medicine), proper equipment and medicines may not be available at all or may not be at the right place at the right time. Individuals go on waiting lists to have needed operations and many die before they ever get to the head of the line.

  About the only consolation individuals get from government dictating what type of health care is to be provided is that there is no bill to pay. The individual's taxes and the taxes from everyone else pick up the tab, making health care seemingly "free."

  Prior to all of the discussion about who ought to pay for health care and prior to the use of the force of government to force health care providers to provide health care for all of society, individuals were free to decide for themselves how they wanted to be treated and by whom.

  As a result the cost was a lot less. Those that did not have enough funds to pay for such services were helped by voluntary organizations and/or family and friends.

  Force is not the answer to any problem and adding more government force only exacerbates the situation. Government force to get the job done, whether it is health care or anything else, does not really benefit all of society.

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Howard J. Blitz is a local libertarian and president of The Freedom Library Inc., 2435 S. 8th Ave. His e-mail address is info@freedomlibrary.org