Progressives in Fantasyland

Whoever invented the phrase "single-payer health care" was either an evil genius or a moron. Single-payer health care (in other words, government-paid health care) really means everbody pays through taxes. "Single-payer health care" is thus amazingly misleading and erroneous.

This comes up because on Tuesday, while I and some other Cornell Libertarians were protesting the exclusion of third-party candidates from the New York gubernatorial debate that was going on, a slightly (not by as much as you'd think) larger group was rallying for "single-payer health care". They held signs saying "I'm a Health Care Voter" and pontificated into a loudspeaker. They proclaimed, frighteningly enough, that they would "remove the profit motive from health care". This would clearly not help anything. Do they somehow think that it would be cheaper if all health care providers were forced to charge the same price? The problem with health care is not that the industry wants profits, it's the current labyrinth of rules and regulations which prices health care to employers which get tax credits for providing health insurance to their employees and out of the range of most individuals. Ron Paul explains how this works.

One of the handmade signs held by the rally participants said "Health Care for Profit is Sick." I contend that it's sick because it's infected by government.

Digg it.