Bringing the Libertarian Voice to the Table - HEALTHCARE

If you have not read Bringing the Libertarian Voice to the Table - Overview - please do so before proceeding. It should take under 5 minutes.

The Libertarian platform on healthcare may be found at https://www.lp.org/issues/healthcare.

I summarize the platform contained in the link above:

• Health used to be much more affordable before the government got involved in the 60s.
• The government is now spending 50% of the healthcare dollars in the country.
• Three suggestions:
• Establish Medical Savings Accounts
• Deregulate the healthcare industry
• Remove barriers to safe affordable medicines.

The Libertarian Party wants to harness the power of the free market to help health insurance. This is however easier said than done.

Some additional points that would add to the positions that have been set out (and I encourage the reader to directly review the webpage sited in the link - it will only take a minute).

First the platform needs to recognize and acknowledge that many things BESIDES government intervention are at play and driving the costs upward. Some examples:

• the technology of healthcare is increasing and improving dramatically.  So costs are up - but with reason.
• the population is aging and living longer - both of which increase costs.

Second there are reasons for government involvement -

• the number and percentage uninsured has gone up and the free market was not responding
• the free market needs to operate in a logical framework - the current framework (pre ACA) did not address access or affordability issues. Indeed the incentive were perverse - i.e. encouraging companies to not insure sick people.

Evaluation of Specific Agenda Items:

Establish Medical Savings Accounts 

This is a concrete and valuable suggestion. I support it. However it won't help those who can't afford to save and won't - by itself help access.

Deregulate the Healthcare Industry

This is a very general and non actionable point. It repeals all government policies that increase health costs and decrease the availability of medical services. Most certainly there aren't polices that are self described as existing to decrease the availability of medical service. They may have that effect - but that is not their intent. No doubt though there are many provisions that increase cost. In virtually all cases these are in existence for a reason. If the LP wants to be effective it has to find these policies - explain why they exist - and then prove - assert that we 'd be better off without them. This is possible - but it is a lot of work! I encourage the LP to do this work.

Remove Barriers to safe affordable Medicine

The LP  indicates - using the example of Propranolol - that the Federal Drug Administration - by delaying its approval for 10 years is responsible for 100,000 deaths. Their conclusion is the bureaucratic roadblocks kills sick Americans.

I personally doubt the veracity of the figures - but - for this discussion - accept them. 

What is the fix for the FDA? To make the Propranadol example useful it needs to be explained. If there was literally no reason for the 10 year delay then perhaps criminal action is required. But without knowing what the delay was caused by - it is hard to know how to respond to this suggestion.

Perhaps the LP would disband the FDA - if so who performs their function? 

Perhaps the LP would reform the FDA - if so how?

In summary my evaluation of their three suggestions is that the first one is actionable as is. But the last two are nothing more than broad statements - portrayed as policies choices - that need much much more work before they are actionable.

Points I would make if I were a Libertarian:

• We need to understand why healthcare has been so resistant to the free market solution. It is not solely because of the government. There are many reasons why the FAILURE of the free market in this arena made it necessary to have government intervention.
• Viruses do not respect individual Liberties. Because of that there is a collective interest in having preventive care, vaccinations, etc for as many people as possible. A specific proposal on how to balance individual rights and societal needs for protection from communicable disease would be a great help
• For the reason above - issues of subsidy and affordability come to the fore. If we want to guarantee some level of care - this problem has to be addressed. The ACA has its method - the individual mandate - if the LP can bring forward less restrictive but effective solutions they would be welcomed.
• More to follow….

Comments and suggestions are most welcome