Given the almost unbelievable lack of understanding in certain corners about markets in health care, I have been remiss in not mentioning sooner my membership in a club that rivals the Hair Club for Men and the Club for Growth in its ability to have a positive impact on society (the He-Man Woman Haters Club doesn’t count because it wasn’t real).
I am, of course, talking about the Anti?Universal Coverage Club. It’s easy to join this elite group — if you agree with the following principles, just post a note to your own blog or send an email to the club’s founder, Michael Cannon.
- Health policy should focus on making health care of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of people.
- To achieve ?universal coverage? would require either having the government provide health insurance to everyone or forcing everyone to buy it. Government provision is undesirable, because government does a poor job of improving quality or efficiency. Forcing people to get insurance would lead to a worse health-care system for everyone, because it would necessitate so much more government intervention.
- In a free country, people should have the right to refuse health insurance.
- If governments must subsidize those who cannot afford medical care, they should be free to experiment with different types of subsidies (cash, vouchers, insurance, public clinics & hospitals, uncompensated care payments, etc.) and tax exemptions, rather than be forced by a policy of ?universal coverage? to subsidize people via ?insurance.?