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Preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and other services related to the health of an individual

Health care or healthcare is the maintenance or improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, illness, injury and other physical and mental impairments in human beings. Healthcare is delivered by health professionals (providers or practitioners) in allied health fields. Physicians and physician associates are a part of these health professionals. Dentistry, midwifery, nursing, medicine, optometry, audiology, pharmacy, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy and other health professions are all part of healthcare. It includes work done in providing primary care, secondary care and tertiary care, as well as in public health.

Websites

FDAReview.org, by Independent Institute, Daniel B. Klein, Alexander Tabarrok
A project of the Independent Institute; website sections include: history of drug regulation, the drug development and approval process, drug safety, theory and examples of FDA harm, reform options and alternative solutions

Articles

The Affordable Care Act Doesn't Go That Way, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 1 Nov 2013
Examines the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from the perspective of basic economics and its unintended consequences
Barack Obama and his allies saw a problem: some people can't afford or qualify for medical insurance. But instead of investigating how market forces might currently be thwarted from addressing this problem, they used government ... to decree that insurance companies—which are already largely creatures of the state—must accept all applicants regardless of their health (guaranteed issue) and must charge the unhealthy the same price as they charge the healthy (community rating); that is, premiums may not reflect actual risk, converting insurance into a covert transfer program.
Airbrushing Barbarity, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 5 Jul 2013
Demonstrates how politicians and pundits twist the meaning of terms to support their desired ends while concealing their true purposes
The purported objectives of policies are expressed in [value-laden] language, but the methods of achieving them are not. So, for example, a politician or pundit will proclaim the moral desirability and even the justice of universal medical coverage. But when it comes to discussing the means to that end, the language turns technical and seemingly value-free. Speeches ... overflow with wonkish deceptive jargon. Terms like "mandate" and "penalty" are thrown around, all the better to hide the fact that if you refuse to follow some bureaucrat's orders, armed agents will turn up on your doorstep to force you to obey.
Related Topics: Politics, The State, Thomas Szasz
Alternative Medicine Is Libertarian Medicine, by Butler Shaffer, 2 Dec 2006
Discusses several aspects of healthcare, including self-ownership, being responsible for our own care, decentralized information, the collapse of external authorities and the dehumanizing decisions resulting from institutionalized healthcare
There are a number of factors contributing to this decentralization in health care. (1) The rapidly increasing costs of traditional medicine, much of that promoted by the rigid control of entry (i.e., licensing) and the accompanying regulation of medical practices by the state. (2) An awareness ... that equally or even more effective health alternatives and remedies are available, and at significantly lower costs. (3) An attraction to the more individualized treatment afforded by alternative methods ... (4) A growing awareness of the role of self-healing and individualized health maintenance practices.
Bad Medicine, by Sheldon Richman, 21 Mar 2003
Discusses the differences between Democrat and Republican policies for government schooling and proposals to add prescription-drug coverage to Medicare
Another example is prescription-drug coverage for the elderly ... In both cases, the money would come from the taxpayers and be controlled by the bureaucrats. The Democrats would deal with the drug companies, the Republicans with the HMOs. Either way, strings will be attached and the medical marketplace will be further hampered from efficiently providing life-saving products and services. The Democrats ... say they want a monster government bureaucracy controlling drug prices and giving orders to the pharmaceutical industry. The administration ... wants to subsidize private medical plans ...
Bad Medicine, by Sheldon Richman, Freedom Daily, Nov 2003
Discusses the potential effects of passing the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, signed into law in Dec 2003
[I]t appears Congress will pass a bill to enact a monumental expansion of Medicare ... According to Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, Medicare is already the largest buyer of medical services in the world. It will get much bigger—a lot bigger than President Bush and members of Congress predict ... [W]hat if the real price of the Medicare plan is the crippling of each individual's medical freedom and the destruction of the pharmaceutical industry, which has provided myriad life-saving drugs that often obviate more costly surgery and hospital services?
Big Pharma and Crony Capitalism, by Wendy McElroy, 9 Jul 2012
Examines the ways in which large pharmaceutical companies influence government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
A friend just experienced a terrible drug problem ... A casually prescribed pill came close to destroying her. The Kaiser Health Foundation tracked the number of retail drug prescriptions filled at American pharmacies in 2010. The statistics were broken down per capita and by age. Children age 0–8 averaged almost 4 prescriptions; Americans age 19–64 averaged 11; those over 65 years old averaged 31. Undoubtedly, many prescriptions were for antibiotics or other relatively mundane medications. But every drug has possible side effects that constitute reasonable risks only if the drug offers genuine benefit.
A Clarion Call for Health Independence, by Wendy McElroy, 31 Jan 2007
A review of the movie Lorenzo's Oil (1992), exploring its main themes
On a more political level, the overriding theme is 'Question Authority' ... Augusto requests medical material to better understand what is happening to his son. Without meaning offense, a doctor assures Augusto that he could not make possibly make sense of the studies ... Their willingness to tolerate both unlikely theories and the skepticism those theories elicit is precisely what leads them to ... an effective treatment ... It is not merely that experts are shown to be fallible and constrained by narrow thinking. It is that ordinary people are shown to be capable of realizing their own self-interest even in 'expert only' areas.
Clinton's Health-Care Plan for You: Cradle-to-Grave Slavery, Part I, by Jarret Wollstein, Freedom Daily, Jan 1994
Examines various provisions of the Clinton health care plan of 1993, including studies conducted on the proposal by CONSAD Research Corporation and the Heartland Institute
All doctors will eventually be forced to join governmental "health networks," in which bureaucrats will dictate what procedures they will be allowed to use—under penalty of fines, asset confiscation, and imprisonment. Doctors who refuse to join will be out of business. And the same holds true for alternative practitioners ... You will only be allowed to select doctors from Clinton's approved list ... The specialties doctors will be allowed to practice will also be determined by the state ... Present and future doctors will be under direct control of a new National Health Board.
Related Topics: Bill Clinton, Government, Taxation
Clinton's Health-Care Plan for You: Cradle-to-Grave Slavery, Part II, by Jarret Wollstein, Freedom Daily, Feb 1994
Continues the examination of the proposed Clinton health care plan of 1993, focusing on the "Health Security Cards", privacy and lifestyle provisions
Clinton's health-care plan calls for a direct government takeover of one seventh of our economy ... national ID cards ... computer dossiers on every person in America ... registration of your children with the state from birth ... placing all doctors, hospitals ... under state control ... taxes, fines and forfeitures ... treatment for drug abuse and "mental problems" at the whim of bureaucrats ... mandatory drugging of citizens ... and giving governmental bureaucrats the life-and-death power to decide what medicines and treatment you will be allowed to have. This is not a plan for "reforming" health care or controlling costs.
Related Topic: Bill Clinton
The Drug War as a Socialist Enterprise, by Milton Friedman, Friedman & Szasz on Liberty and Drugs, 16 Nov 1991
Chapter adapted from keynote address at Fifth International Conference on Drug Policy Reform; examines why, 20 years after his admonition against the drug war, the government continues its attempts at enforcement, in spite of the predicted results
Go down the list of our major national concerns ... We have major problems in medical care. Total costs for medical care have risen from four percent of the national income to thirteen percent in forty years. Why? Again, because the government has increasingly socialized medical care and there is a very strong movement to go all the way to a complete socialization of medical care. Largely as a result of greater government involvement, the cost of a day spent in the hospital, cost per patient day, was twenty-six times as high in 1989, after adjustment for inflation, as it was in 1946.
Dump the Contraception Mandate and All the Rest, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 3 Jan 2014
Questions the logic of advocates of mandating employers to pay for "insurance" coverage of contraceptives
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) mandates not only that employers provide comprehensive medical insurance to their full-time employees, but also that the coverage include contraceptives ... Because contraceptives are not found free in nature ... this means that the explicit expense must be borne by employers ... the use of contraceptives is not an insurable event because it is a volitional action. Insurance was devised to provide financial protection against unlikely but costly happenings ... It was not supposed to be a way to get other people to pay for the routine things you want to buy.
The Economic Way of Thinking about Health Care, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 20 Feb 2015
Discusses voicing of opinions on public policy, as exemplified by Mike Lupica's comment on "health insurance for all", without having knowledge of economics, the corruption of the meaning of "insurance" and the goal of universal and affordable healthcare
[T]here is something noble in envisioning the day when everyone can afford good health care. What sound economic thinking can teach us is that just because government can't provide universal high-quality health care, that doesn't mean there's no other way to achieve it. The way to do that is to remove all the impediments to the production and provision of medical and insurance services that have accumulated over many years in the form of privileges that restrict competition. This includes occupational licensing and accreditation, facility permits, ... regulations ..., patents ... and more.
Government Medical "Insurance", by Murray N. Rothbard, Making Economic Sense, 1995
Excerpt from Chapter 20. Written around the time of Hillarycare (Clinton's 1993 plan) but even more applicable now to Obamacare
And so, our very real medical crisis has been the product of massive government intervention, state and federal, throughout the century; in particular, an artificial boosting of demand coupled with an artificial restriction of supply. The result has been accelerating high prices and deterioration of patient care. And next, socialized medicine could easily bring us to the vaunted medical status of the Soviet Union: everyone has the right to free medical care, but there is, in effect, no medicine and no care.
Related Topics: Medicine, Prices
Health Care, by Michael F. Cannon, The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism, 15 Aug 2008
Discusses various aspects of healthcare from a libertarian perspective: control of contagious diseases, self-directed treatment, occupational licensing, sale of human organs, health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid
Health care represents a special area of public policy for libertarians, although not for the reasons typically offered in support of government intervention. In limited circumstances, a substantial number of libertarians support state-sponsored coercion to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. In the absence of violence, theft, tortious injury, fraud, or breach of contract, however, libertarians reject the use of coercion in health and medicine as immoral and counterproductive. ... Libertarians reject government intervention to remedy private health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, or addiction.
Related Topics: Health, Occupational Licensing
Health Insurance Scam, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 13 Nov 2009
Analyzes how what is called "health insurance" is not about health nor is it insurance, how it came about from "wartime economic controls", and why it has resulted in rising medical care costs
But "health insurance" isn't traditional insurance. As Szasz puts it, "[W]hat we call 'health insurance' has little to do with health and nothing to do with insurance." (By the way, when did medical care/insurance become health care/insurance? They aren't the same thing. Health care is whatever you do to care for your health: dieting, exercising, meditating, and so on. Medical care is what you buy from a doctor or a hospital to recover from or manage a disease or injury, or to ascertain if you have one of those. Conflating those terms has had huge adverse public-policy ramifications.)
Related Topics: Business, Government, Prices, Taxation
Hobby Lobby Ruling Falls Short, by Sheldon Richman, 2 Jul 2014
Dissects the good and bad parts of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, ruling against the Affordable Care Act provision that required employers to pay for contraceptives
Supporters of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) say the court decision permits the favored employers to make health-care decisions for women ... When did we start equating the right to buy contraceptives—which hardly anyone disputes—with the power to compel others to pay? It is demagogic to insist that prohibiting the latter violates the former ... But, say the ACA's supporters, contraception is important to women's health care and can be expensive. Let's grant both points. So what? How can that justify forcing employers to pay? That is the question ... (It is not only low-income women who qualify for free contraceptives.)
In Defense of a Free Market in Health Care, by Robert D. Helmholdt, 16 Apr 2004
Explains why government health care reforms will not improve the status quo, recommending instead complete deregulation of the industry and reliance on the free market
[I]t's interesting to note that as recently as the 1960s, low-cost health insurance was available to virtually everyone in America, including people with existing medical problems. Doctors made house calls. A hospital stay cost only a few days' pay. Drugs were relatively inexpensive. And charity hospitals were available to take care of families who couldn't afford to pay for health care. Then the federal government moved in with Medicare, Medicaid, the HMO Act, and tens of thousands of regulations on doctors, hospitals, and health-insurance companies, inciting skyrocketing costs.
The Invisible Hand Is a Gentle Hand, by Sharon Harris, 14 Sep 1998
Originally published at HarryBrowne.org; defends the free market and individual liberty, quoting among others Bastiat, Thomas Jefferson, David and Milton Friedman, John Lott, Isabel Paterson, Proudhon, Adam Smith, Sowell, John Stossel and Walter Williams
I saw a TV news show about a new drug the FDA was considering for approval. There were people, some of them in wheelchairs, begging—literally begging—for the drug, which had helped many of them and which for some was their last chance. Tears were streaming down their faces. The pious committee of doctors ... voted not to give the drug to these people because the government had not yet proven its effectiveness. "It's for your own good," one of them said to the sick people. Later, one member of the committee explained to the reporter that they didn't want to "give false hope to these people."
The Liberty Manifesto, by P. J. O'Rourke, 6 May 1993
Remarks at a gala dinner celebrating the opening of the Cato Institute's new headquarters in Washington, DC
Freedom is not empowerment ... It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights—the "right" to education, the "right" to health care ... That's not freedom, that's dependency ... Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money—hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
UpdA Man, a Plan, a Flop, by David Gordon, Mises Daily, 23 Apr 2006
Critical review of Charles Murray's In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (2006)
Does [Murray's plan] not eliminate Medicare? Yes; but [it] hardly provides for a free market in medicine. Quite the contrary, everyone is required to use $3000 of his annual grant for medical insurance ... [He] solves [an obvious objection] with consummate ease. "Legally oblige medical insurers to treat the entire population, of all ages, as a single pool" ... Why Murray thinks that obese people who smoke and hang-glide are at risk through no fault of their own I shall not venture to say; but to end "cosmic unfairness," Murray's plan subjects medical insurance to government control.
The Many Monopolies, by Charles W. Johnson, 24 Aug 2011
Describes four ways in which markets are distorted by government interventions, explains Benjamin Tucker's "Four Monopolies", examines five present-day monopolies and discusses Tucker's libertarian views
The Health Care Monopoly is a ripple effect of other monopolies but merits special notice because of the all-consuming growth of the medical sector and because health care and insurance so profoundly shape decisions about jobs, money, and financial planning ... The FDA and medical licensing provide a form of regulatory protectionism, constraining the supply of doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals, concentrating profits and further ratcheting costs. A medical need can become a catastrophic cost, effectively requiring comprehensive insurance.
Medicare Rx Reform: The Road to Medical Serfdom, by Sheldon Richman, Health Freedom Watch, 23 Jun 2003
Criticizes the proposed (and later passed) addition of prescription drug coverage to Medicare and predicts the eventual nationalization of health care
[The] real price of the plan is the crippling of medical freedom as well as the pharmaceutical industry, which has provided myriad life-saving drugs that often obviate the need for more costly surgery? That is what's at stake ... There's been no free market in medicine for many years. Dubious patent laws interfere with competition. The Food and Drug Administration grossly raises the cost of developing new medicines. And government control through licensing and prescriptions cartelize the entire medical profession. If the reformers were really interested in lowering medical costs ... they'd be addressing those issues ...
Related Topics: Bureaucracy, Prices
"Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss", by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 11 Jan 2008
Examines politics, including slogans such as "hope", "change" (Barack Obama) and "straight talk" (John McCain) in the 2008 United States presidential campaigns, and explains why politicians cannot be expected to lead the way to liberty
The "free-enterprise approach" to medicine, to judge by this campaign, is to tinker with the existing state-riddled system in order to create "incentives" for private insurance companies to do what the politicians want them to do ... No one points out that the politicians have imposed so many regulations and mandates and taken over so much of the financing, that there is barely a medical marketplace left. Most medical care is paid for by third parties, government or tax-privileged insurance companies, virtually relegating patients to the status of children and short-circuiting the cost-consciousness of consumers.
UpdMilton Friedman RIP, by Walter Block, Mises Daily, 16 Nov 2006
In memoriam, focusing on Friedman's positives and including several personal recollections
My favorite essay in his Capitalism and Freedom is chapter 9, where Milton rips into the [American Medical Association] for its policies of restrictive entry into the field of medicine. With the Democrats taking over both houses of congress, and with that harridan Hillary the front runner for its presidential ticket in 2008, we will likely face some mighty battles against the imposition of fully socialized medicine. Thanks to this insightful analysis of Milton's, we will not be without intellectual ammunition in this regard.
Parallels Between Liberty and Health, by Rich Schwartzman, 30 Sep 2011
Discusses guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration that attempt to regulate nutritional supplements as synthetic food preservatives, in spite of the 1994 Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act, and the advertising concept of "social proof"
Some of today's accepted practices, such as osteopathy and chiropractic, were once outlawed without rational justification. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic practices work well without any bureaucratic blessing and without using patented pharmaceuticals that have adverse side effects. People have a natural right to use supplements and herbs, seek alternative modalities, or use the more conventional drug-it-or-cut-it approaches for their health. They don't need a federal bureaucracy, or even a state or corporate bureaucracy to tell them what they must do.
The Primacy of Freedom, by Brian Summers, The Freeman, Feb 1988
One of over 20 essays in the anthology Ideas on Liberty: Essays in Honor of Paul L. Poirot (1987), discussing why the freedom philosophy and economic and moral education are important
Consider ... medical care. I marvel at the advances in medicine and medical technology, and I applaud those who freely contribute their time and wealth to support medical care and research ... [I]t is important to give some thought to the social system which creates the wealth ..., as well as consider the institutions which best facilitate an adequate diet, sanitation, technological, biological, and chemical advances, and which foster a spirit of open inquiry. It also is instructive to consider first-hand reports of people who have witnessed the appalling medical systems in totalitarian states.
Profiting from Misfortune, by Sheldon Richman, 5 Oct 2005
Reflects on the fairness of those who profit from the "misfortune of others", such as medical doctors and farmers, in view of gas price hikes due to the hurricanes of the 2005 Atlantic season
If being prone to medical problems, as most of us are to some extent, is a misfortune, then doctors routinely profit from our misfortune. Should we feel hostility toward them because of this? Should government hold their incomes down to the barest minimum? Some people might like that idea, but the next time you go to the doctor, ask yourself whether you would want to put your health in the hands of a doctor whose income was controlled by government. The top doctors would be likely to refuse to work under such conditions, leaving the field to ones you might not want to trust your life to.
Related Topics: Farming, Fuels, Prices
Self-Deception about Medical Care, by Sheldon Richman, 15 Feb 2006
Discusses comments made by Christine Cassel, a geriatric medicine specialist, arguing for public support of Medicare; pointing out that long ago people of modest means were able to obtain medical care through "lodges" (fraternal organizations)
Long before there was Medicare and Medicaid, many people of modest and low income received decent medical care through fraternal organizations. Lodges would sign contracts with doctors, in effect buying services in bulk that, throughout the year, would be distributed to members and their families at affordable prices. The system made medical care accessible while maintaining self-responsibility and cost-consciousness. It was so successful that other doctors, fearing that competition would reduce their incomes, got their government-backed medical societies to crack down on "lodge practice."
Related Topic: Government
Socialism and Medicine, Part 1, by William L. Anderson, Freedom Daily, May 2008
Examines the economics of medical care in the United States over the past 60 years
Until the post-World War II era, medical services were pay-as-you-go affairs. Those who could not afford the best care depended on charity hospitals or doctors who were willing to stretch out the payment structure. In other words, people purchased medical care the way that they purchased most other goods: directly and in close relationships with those people who provided the services.
Socialism and Medicine, Part 2, by William L. Anderson, Freedom Daily, Jun 2008
Examines the economics of medical care in the United States, including the influence of third-party payers and comparisons to medical care in Canada
Consider the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) device by which doctors are able to "take pictures" inside the human body without invading it ... Thanks to the MRI, doctors can engage quickly and painlessly in exploratory surgery to find damaged tissues without having to engage in "invasive" procedures (i.e., cutting someone open). While the MRI is expensive both to purchase and to maintain, nonetheless it is a cost-saving device because it shortens the time for critical examinations and requires fewer people to perform more medical assessments.
Socialism and Medicine, Part 3, by William L. Anderson, Freedom Daily, Jul 2008
Further examination of medical care in the United States, analyzing the calls for "mandates" for universal health care
Writes physician Jane Orient,
... Canada's upside-down-and-backward universal health care makes sure that anybody can go to the doctor because of a sniffle without paying the bill. On the other hand those who are really sick are "guaranteed" to be circling around the emergency room or piled up on gurneys in the corridor, and they are forced to pay for such care on the basis of income ...
... Because medical care has become a tool of the political classes, there is no way under the current system ... that it can develop as it would in a free market.
Socialized Medicine in a Wealthy Country, by Lew Rockwell, Mises Daily, 2 Dec 2006
Discusses the view of socialized medicine held by left-socialists, examining the problems that existed in Soviet-controlled countries as well as current U.S. problems, and urges a "complete separation of health and state"
With the Democrats taking charge in Congress, we will surely hear talk of mandatory national health insurance, more spending for health care for the poor and elderly, and more taxes on individuals and business to pay for the whole scheme. This is admittedly not that different from what Republicans have been doing since taking over. In some ways, Republicans are even worse, driving us to socialism in the name of market reform and other sloganeering. Either way, we are stuck with a system that is moving the health sector ever more into the hands of the state.
Substance, not style, by Daniel Koffler, 9 Feb 2008
Contrasts several of presidential candidate Obama's 2008 issue positions with those of Hillary Clinton and argues his approach could be called left-libertarianism
Obama's preference for reducing healthcare costs while preserving the freedom to choose whether or not to participate in the healthcare system, as against Clinton's (and Edwards's) insistence on mandating participation, is not a one-off discrepancy ... Rather, Obama's language of personal choice and incentive is a reflection of the ideas of his lead economic advisor, Austin Goolsbee ... Goolsbee promotes programmes to essentially democratise the market ... No wonder, then, that Obama's healthcare plan is specifically designed to give people good reason to buy in, without coercing them.
The War On Drugs Is Lost, by William F. Buckley Jr., Ethan A. Nadelmann, Kurt Schmoke, Joseph D. McNamara, Robert W. Sweet, Thomas Szasz, Steven B. Duke, National Review, 12 Feb 1996
Symposium with essays from William F. Buckley Jr., drug policy researcher Ethan A. Nadelmann, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, former chief of police Joseph D. McNamara, judge Robert W. Sweet, psychiatrist Thomas Szasz and law professor Steven B. Duke
Thomas Szasz
... Among the sins of the drug warriors, I view the following as especially important: ... turning doctors into drug-monopolists (by making the purchase of most drugs, especially "pleasure-producing" drugs, illegal without a physician's prescription), and perverting the medical criteria of disease and treatment (by defining certain "bad" choices as diseases, and certain "good" coercions as treatments); ... converting the relationship between doctor and patient from a contract between two responsible adults into a domination-dependence relationship ...
What Crisis?, by Scott McPherson, 18 Sep 2006
There's no crisis here that hasn't been created by government interventionism. So-called patients' rights advocates claim that health-care workers have an ethical obligation to serve their patients. ... Those who feel that their religious liberty is being violated for being asked to perform tasks contrary to their beliefs are likewise missing the mark.
Related Topic: Rights
UpdWhy is Medical Care so Expensive?, by Hans Sennholz, Mises Daily, 22 Aug 2006
Discusses various explanations given for the explosion in medical expenses and then focuses on some of the more likely culprits behind the increased costs
Few observers dare to state that spiraling health-care costs are the inevitable consequence of a 1965 Social Security amendment molding Medicare and Medicaid ... Surely, it has saved some lives ... It has doubled, tripled, and quadrupled many phases of the health-care industry but also kept other service industries smaller than they would have been in a free service economy ... But there cannot be any doubt that the massive injection of political funds and the growing role of legislators and regulators have radically changed the very nature and structure of the health-care industry.
Related Topics: Politics, Taxation, Technology
Why We Need More 'Uninsured' Americans, by Carla Howell, 13 Apr 2006
Neither patients nor providers have incentive to keep costs down. This encourages doctors to prescribe procedures you don't need — raising costs for insurance companies. They respond in turn by raising the price of your premiums, raising the amount you must pay for co-pays and deductibles, and reducing the services they cover.
Winning the Battle for Freedom and Prosperity, by John Mackey, Liberty, Jun 2006
Updated from speech given at FreedomFest 2004; after a brief background on himself, Mackey criticizes the freedom movement from a marketing and branding perspective and suggests a different approach by de-emphasizing some issues and prioritizing others
Who among you believes that socialized medicine is the answer to the health care crisis in America? The Left believes [so]: equal access to the health care system for all Americans—no one denied for financial reasons, in a single-payer system. Socialized health care seems very idealistic, and as such, appeals to many people. However, as Milton Friedman taught us, there is no such thing as a free lunch—in health care or anywhere else. We know the single-payer system means health care rationing through queuing up in long lines ... and denial of some services to many of the elderly as too expensive.
Your Money or Your Life: Tackling Rising Costs in Health Care, by David J. Theroux, 19 Jan 1984
Discusses the trend of rising healh care costs and attributes it to regulation, particularly licensing, and the proliferation of third-party payers, both Medicare and Medicaid as well as group insurance plans
While life itself may be priceless, it is possible to assign a cost to its upkeep—and that cost is rising rapidly ... As societies become wealthier and people live longer, it is logical to expect an increase in the total demand for health care. But it does not follow that individual services should radically rise in price. Two main factors have contributed to skyrocketing medical prices. The first is regulation of the medical industry ... But the last 40 years have seen the rise of another factor that has caused the dramatic and continuing acceleration of costs—third-party payments.

Interviews

Curing the Therapeutic State: Thomas Szasz interviewed by Jacob Sullum, by Thomas Szasz, Jacob Sullum, Reason, Jul 2000
Subjects discussed include involuntary commitment, the insanity defense, ADHD, government drug policies and physician-assisted suicide
Reason: Recently ... Tipper Gore and other people say that health insurers should be forced to cover mental health treatment on the same terms as medical treatment. What do you think the consequences ... will be?
Szasz: We are talking about ... the government ... mandating that an ostensibly private insurance company provide coverage for a disease which doesn't exist ... I don't know where to begin. The people who clamor for this—mainly politicians and psychiatrists—want parity for mental illness, but they don't want parity for the mental patient, because ordinary patients can reject treatment.

Cartoons and Comic Strips

Non Sequitur: Woo-hoo! I did it! I found a cure!!, by Wiley Miller, 24 Jun 2014

Books

The Dangers of Socialized Medicine
    by Richard Ebeling (editor), Jacob G. Hornberger (editor), The Future of Freedom Foundation, 1994
Collection of essays by Ebeling, Hornberger, Dominick T. Armentano, Williamson M. Evers, Milton Friedman, Lawrence W. Reed, Sheldon Richman, David B. Rivkin Jr., Thomas S. Szasz, Lawrence D. Wilson and Jarret B. Wollstein
Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care?
    by Richard Epstein, 1997
Partial contents: Introduction: Hard Truths and Fresh Starts - One: Access to Health Care - Positive Rights to Health Care - Limited Access - Comprehensive Care - Two: Self-Determination and Choice - Organ Transplantation - Deaths and Dying - Liability

Videos


How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis - Animation, by Tomasz Kaye, 11 Aug 2016
Based on Roderick Long's essay "How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis: Medical Insurance that Worked — Until Government 'Fixed' It", Formulations, Winter 1993-94

The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Health care" as of 26 Nov 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.