Liberty Maven

ABC News held a nationally televised townhall-style meeting from the White House last night focused on helping Obama get his version of socialized medicine more support. Dubbed “Prescription For America”, the event was unsurprisingly void of substance. For the free market lovers among us the prescription was precisely what you’d expect: more pain!

Here’s what I see, along with many others, as the essence of the problem with Obamacare. The plan is quite sinister and misleading. It allows Obama to push the notion that “you will get to keep your current plan if you like it” while covering his ass when it proves untrue.

He’s pushing the notion that the “government option”, also called the “public option”, will somehow compete fairly with existing private companies. This is absurd on its face. It’s like allowing the team you are competing against to referee the game.

Furthermore, if there is a free (tax-subsidized) option it will push private insurers out of the market resulting in less options over time until the only insurer left is the government. Use of the word “option” then becomes a misnomer because you will only have a single choice. A choice that will likely be sub-par and more expensive to run than what we have now.

Apparently, the government is going for a monopoly on “moral hazard“. They already have it cornered in the economics realm with the Federal Reserve and Treasury. Now they are trying to expand it into health care.

For much more detail on the reasonable approach to health care, please check out the CATO institute’s policy information. First read through the words of Michael Cannon and Michael Tanner on the live blog from the ABC event last night. Also check out CATO’s health care policy analysis for some great information.