I am introducing a new feature here at The Humble Libertarian called the "Think Tank Lineup," which as you can imagine, will be a regular round-up consisting of short excerpts from, with links to, articles from the various liberty-oriented think tanks.Libertarian and conservative think tanks are aptly named, as they are truly the "heavy artillery" of the liberty movement, providing the intellectual and factual firepower our movement needs to combat the waves of disinformation and misunderstanding that sweep regularly over the chattering classes.
As such, I want to feature their work a little more regularly and help you all tap into the great resources they have available in one easy, convenient place. Today's Think Tank Lineup will center on the debate over health insurance / health care reform:
The Mises Institute
Is Emergency Care a Failed Market?
How, then, would truly free-market hospitals handle patients who are now free riders? There is every reason to expect that these uninsured, mostly low-income people would be treated more humanely and with greater dignity than they are in the current quasi-socialist system...
Perhaps the best feature of the free-market process in a libertarian health market is that it would allocate charitable funds to their best use. In our emergency services case, this axiom of market behavior implies that hospitals will spend their charity budgets on the most destitute and impoverished patients.
The Cato Institute
Compulsory Health Insurance Is a Government Takeover
Compulsory health insurance could require nearly 100 million Americans to switch to a more expensive health plan and would therefore violate President Barack Obama's pledge to let people keep their current health insurance. In particular, the legislation before Congress could eliminate many or all health savings account plans. Making health insurance compulsory would also spark an unnecessary fight over abortion and would enable government to ration care to those with private health insurance.
(For more, also check out healthcare.cato.org)
The Independent Institute
Obama Goes Postal
Stamp prices have risen much faster than the rate of inflation. In 1950 a first-class stamp cost just three cents. According to the American Institute for Economic Research online inflation calculator, if the cost of a first-class stamp had merely kept up with inflation it would cost 27 cents today—nine times what it cost in 1950—not 44 cents...
The U.S. Postal Service’s problems (not unlike the problems of Medicare and Medicaid) should provide clear warning that the costs of any government health insurance program will balloon, precisely because the government insurance program wouldn’t have to make a profit.
The Acton Institute
Too Much Government Makes Us Sick
While Congress is busy working on health care reform, policy-makers are reluctant to admit that many of our nation’s health problems are linked to practices subsidized by taxpayers. An American diet heavily dependent on corn and corn-derivatives is linked to obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, Type II-Diabetes, constipation, joint pain, and other ailments.
The tragic irony is that government subsidizes the low-cost production of the corn-based, unhealthy foods that make many people sick. Now the Obama administration wants to give these same policy-makers responsibility for our health care.
The Reason Foundation
Would ObamaCare Cover Sticker-Shock Treatment?
