Politicians Made Healthcare Expensive

Healthcare was very affordable for my middle class parents during the 1960s when I was young.  There was minimal government intervention in the free market for healthcare in those days.  Service was great, and prices were reasonable.

 

Fast forward to the present.  Politicians meddle in virtually every aspect of healthcare, regulating procedures, mandating coverages, specifying paperwork, subsidizing care, and restricting interstate competition for insurers.  Healthcare has become enormously expensive.  Any question why?  Because free market healthcare has been made illegal by politicians.  The more they meddle, the higher the cost.

 

The other major market with large-scale political interference is education.  I now leave it as an exercise to the reader to explain inflation in education costs.

A Defense of Capitalism

There is no "manna from heaven" in any economic system. Imperfections are everywhere. But capitalism is the system that optimizes aggregate standard of living through free choice and market accountability. Any deviation from pure free market enterprise is a drag on productivity and living standards.

Things are screwed up precisely because government interfered in the natural functioning of the free market. The Federal Reserve over-stimulated. Freddie and Fannie influenced the mortgage and housing markets in unnatural ways. Politicians forced lenders to loan money to people who shouldn't have qualified. Bubble, bubble. Homebuyers and Wall Street financiers were happy to play along.

It was fun while it lasted, as people were making money, and politicians were bragging about their programs and regulations. Greenspan was a hero for supposedly saving the economy. Yeah, right. Capitalists realize the economy would grow faster and work better through market mechanisms of accountability. No bailouts, subsidies, regulatory burdens, nor heavy taxation. Let companies and workers be accountable for their own performance. That's capitalism. Instead, we have a government that punishes success and rewards failure.