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Politics : A US National Health Care System?

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To: Mary Cluney who wrote (3381)	12/19/2007 11:40:44 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 42652

We "all" know that it can not work at the extreme ends of the spectrum. We all know that it can't work at the extreme government control end of the spectrum. We don't know that it can't work at the extreme free market end. Not that I'm advocating no government role, I'm just pointing out it isn't something that we KNOW doesn't work. (I suppose if you include no regulation of fraud and abuse as part of "no government role, than we know it doesn't work well, but I'm only talking about no government role in providing or paying for the service, government would still act to enforce laws). We pretty much know that the extreme free market solution is unlikely to work perfectly (although when does any system dealing with a big complex problem work perfectly?), most particularly there will be a problem with medical care for the very poor. Also its probably a good idea for government to spend money on basic medical research. But basically relying on the market usually works. The point of government intervention is to address certain special cases of market failure, externalities, and such. (Always keeping in mind that even when there is market failure, it doesn't automatically mean that government solutions will be better.) You frame the issues as one were we should do some analysis to find the optimum point between two extremes, but the optimum point could be one with much less government involvement. Also an optimum point can be an continually changing thing. That last point is a reason to rely heavily on market solutions because they tend to adjust better. The world is too complex, that's why trying to analyze some perfect government response usually doesn't work, and while the default should be a market solution perhaps with careful targeted government interventions to deal with specific problems.

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