and still cant get it right. Its expensive. Access is spotty. Its mired in bureaucracy.
And its fraught with waste. Obamacare was supposed to fix all this, but
instead, like every other government healthcare program before it, it just made things worse. Why? Because the government is a third-party payer. Let me explain.
Suppose you are going to buy something for
yourself. You have two priorities: price and quality. You want the highest quality for the lowest
possible price. Say youre buying a television.
You have many options: the size of the screen,
the quality of the image, the price. Only you know which one best suits your needs
and your budget. And a lot of companies are competing for your
business. You do your research; you make your choice.
This is called a first-party purchase the
person paying is the person using. Now, lets suppose that either the price
or quality is not controlled by you; in this case, you are buying something for someone
else. You care about the price because you are paying
for it, but you are a little more flexible on the quality. A good example would be a wedding gift say,
a coffee maker.
You might think, by the time it breaks theyll
forget who gave it to them anyway the cheaper one will be fine. All of us have bought things for others we
never would have bought for ourselves. We care about the price because were paying
for it, but not so much about the quality because were not going to use it. Or, suppose that were going to use something,
but were not going to pay for it.
Then were concerned about the quality because
were consuming it, but the cost is not as important because were not paying for
it. Any father who ever got roped into paying
for an open bar at a wedding understands this program. Nobody ever orders the cheap stuff when its
free. These are called second-party purchases.
The person paying is not the person using. And now, for the coup de grace: when it is
not your money paying for something, AND you dont use it. Then youre not concerned about either the
price or the quality. Suppose the boss gives you $150 to buy a door
prize for the office party.
In a store window, you see a six-foot tall
stuffed frog marked $149.00 You think, Oh, thats perfect lets buy it. The raffle winner is awarded the six-foot
frog. Everyone laughs at the gag. Now, this is called a third-party purchase
a purchase that is made with money that is not yours (therefore you dont care about
the cost) to buy something youre not going to consume (therefore you dont care about
the quality).
Heres the point: By definition, all government
purchases are third-party purchases. The government spends other people's money
on things it won't consume. It doesnt care about the price or the quality. Thus, there will always be waste in government
spending.
That is why, to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln,
government should do only those things that a man cant do better for himself. If 300 million Americans were free to buy
health insurance for themselves, just as they buy their own life and home and car insurance,
then that little gecko on television would offer us health insurance with a little more
coverage for a little less cost. And he wouldnt be the only one. Insurance companies and hospitals would be
working night and day to get our business.
Quality would go up, and prices would go down. Its already happened with laser eye surgery. It used to cost $2,200 per eye. Now it can cost as low as $500 per eye.
Thats the way free enterprise competition
worksevery time. But when the government gets involved, costs
go up, waste and fraud go up, essential medical services are denied or unavailable. These are the hallmarks of government healthcare
bureaucracies around the globe. The sooner we make health insurance a first-party
purchase again, the sooner Americans will get the health care they wantfinally.
Im Bob McEwen for Prager University..
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