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.

  1. Health policy should focus on making health care of ever-increasing quality available to an ever-increasing number of people.
  2. 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.
  3. In a free country, people should have the right to refuse health insurance.
  4. 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.?