Miss Information

An entertaining NYT op-ed on health care published a few weeks ago.

My favorite line:

[I]f you currently have decent health insurance, thank the government.

Thanks, government! More accurately, if your coverage and care are shitty or don’t exist, thank your fellow citizens (the government) for enforcing monopolies, regulating the competition into bankruptcy, and screwing you royally without ever taking the blame.

[S]urveys show that Medicare recipients are much more satisfied with their coverage than Americans with private insurance.

Assuming said surveys are accurate, that’s nice, but who’s paying for it? Are they more satisfied than if that money weren’t taken from them? How about this: Medicare recipients are much more satisfied with their coverage than at the expense of Americans with private insurance.

And in their efforts to avoid “medical losses,” the industry term for paying medical bills, insurers spend much of the money taken in through premiums not on medical treatment, but on “underwriting” — screening out people likely to make insurance claims. In the individual insurance market, where people buy insurance directly rather than getting it through their employers, so much money goes into underwriting and other expenses that only around 70 cents of each premium dollar actually goes to care.

Oh no! Only 70 cents of each dollar? Surely, our government would be far better. Every dollar goes straight to care! No administrative expenses! No salaries for government employees! No more innovation!

[G]overnment involvement is the only reason our system works at all.

He’s absolutely right. You know what, don’t stop at health care, take over everything. If you buy into this, why stop at anything? Freedom “doesn’t work,” so let’s eradicate it.