Free marketeers are cute; they really are. Faced with an unquestionably failed economic policy, they solider on. It’s fascinating how they can robotically recite—with a straight face and fierce precision—that any government intervention whatever in any market leads to disaster. Like I said, fascinating.
There are, for better or worse, some sectors of an economy that are beyond market capabilities and can only be adequately and appropriately handled by government. Healthcare, for example. I knew this even before I got sick, but it was driven home for me like a shot between the eyes when I realized that without US government intervention in healthcare, I’d be dead.
When asked to provide evidence of a US government program that actually works, I point—without hesitation—to Medicare. That’s not to say it’s perfect—it’s not by a long shot—but it unquestionably works.
The US spends 16 percent of gross domestic product on healthcare. Most other industrialized nations spend roughly half that. Medicare is more efficient than market-driven alternatives; spending three percent or less of its budget on administrative overhead (.pdf; 72Kb), for example, compared to private insurers who spend a whopping 20% of their budgets.
The free marketeers were wrong about just about everything. Instead of arguing the point, it’s time to route around the damage they wrought and let markets work for the things they do well and find other options for those things best handled outside a market economy. Let’s start with an overhauled healthcare system free from the market and its attendant profit-driven motives.
