Free-Market Healthcare

The blessed overlords in D.C. are telling us all that if we just put our faith in them, we'll all be taken care of. Besides being a moronic fantasy denying the very notion of scarcity, it's a complete denial of the principles of freedom of choice and self-ownership. Add to that a healthy dose of economic fallacy, and you've got a recipe for disaster.

What's the problem? The problem, to be clear, is NOT health care per se; it's health insurance and the requirements put on doctors. No, our health care system is not perfect, people die everyday. This will always happen as long as people err.

Insurance is hedging against the risk of things that are not under our control. Think of car insurance. We have insurance against things that we cannot directly control (wrecks, things falling on our cars, vandalism) and that are relatively expensive for us to fix. What is health insurance these days? Besides the part that is real insurance, it is essentially pre-payment for medical services. The government requires insurance companies to offer all manner of coverages to people. What if the people don't want this or that particular coverage? "Too bad", say the overlords, "you will take our benevolent gift". This control over the service itself has the effect of driving up prices. If companies are forced to insure all their customers against every disease under the sun, they, quite obviously, must charge more to cover the risk.

Another factor driving up prices deals with government control over supply. The most obvious example of this is arbitrary restrictions on consumer choice of insurance. We are restricted by the federal government from purchasing insurance in other states. This reduces competition since the companies in any given state have a "captive market"; a captive market created by the government. Government licenses are required to start a medical school, to open a hospital, and to practice medicine (not to mention that nurses are arbitrarily prohibited from doing many things they really could do). All of these factors have the result of increasing prices by limiting supply. If one has to jump through hoops to set up a medical school and maintain licenses, not only will there be a smaller number of these schools (which means less doctors), but he or she must charge students more to pay for all the bureaucracy that is created. After a doctor has incurred massive debt in these schools, he or she must now charge higher prices to pay off this debt and to pay for all of his or her licensing fees. Further, the doctors that do exist can charge higher prices because there are fewer doctors than there would be in a free market. Why are the politicians not talking about this? They operate on the fallacy that holding down prices will fix the problem. If the price of a good drops artificially, more people will demand it. This will create a shortage of care and we will all be poorer.

The solution? Cut the government out of it. They've done enough damage. Cut out the care requirements and the license laws. Now, some may worry that without government control, doctors will have no incentive to keep things clean and to provide good care etc. Nevertheless, the market has a solution. Have you ever heard of Underwriters Laboratories? If not, look at any one of your electrical appliances. I can almost guarantee there is a UL seal on there somewhere. This seal indicates that Underwriters Laboratories has put the product through rigorous testing and has certified its safety. How would this work in healthcare? I don't know exactly, because I'm not a doctor or a hospital administrator. The general idea goes something like this: people demand to know that their doctor is a decent person and has good training. Some person, seeing this desire of people, founds a company (somewhat like UL) that certifies the soundness of a particular doctor's practice. We trust the market to keep us safe from the hazards of potentially dangerous appliances; we trust the market to tell us if a certain higher educational institution is up to par (i.e. accreditation companies); why can we not trust the market to give us safe medical practice?

This article by Prof. Hans-Hermann Hoppe gives a concise plan to end the government control and the high prices. I have drawn insights from him and from others. I note this article as a reference to fill in some gaps I have left out of this analysis.

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

Pope's Comments on Priestly Formation

In today's general audience at Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict spoke of the formation of priests. His comments are inspiring for the faithful. We should all pray for priests in formation, for those who are considering the call, and for those priests who are currently serving the Church in their vocation.

In fide, unitas; in dubiis, libertas; in omnibus, caritas.

Class Schedule

I'm taking 3 classes (for a total of 9 hours) this semester. It will be my first semester in graduate school and I'm pretty pumped up about it.

Econ 720 - Microeconomic Theory
Econ 735 - Mathematical Economics
Stat 706 - Basic Elements of Statistical Theory

It's a pretty healthy load of math. My mentor tells me that I won't be doing a lot of reading and writing, just learning the method. He says the economics classes will be pretty tough compared to what I'm used to, but I really think I'm up to the challenge and I am confident I'll start off graduate school with a bang!

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

Looking for Another Meet

It's been quite awhile since my last update, and indeed, my last meet. Lately I have been working out with a friend at the gym, doing mostly maintenance on the strength side and trying to get some cardio built up for general health. Also, I've been trying to drop into the mid-230s, but apparently not hard enough. I expect that when the semester starts next week the regimentation required will help me get a better handle on my diet.

I'm looking around for meets in the Kansas/Nebraska/Missouri area and haven't had much luck. It's tentative right now, but I may be heading to this meet in November in Hoisington. That is, of course, if I can free up my time to train during my first semester of graduate school.

Mens sana in corpore sano.

Back in the Gym

My first several workouts have been good.  I haven't had any major pain in my elbow and I've been using Icy Hot to keep what little pain I have down.  

This is really a good opportunity to correct my bench press form, as it was horribly incorrect and presented a lot of potential for shoulder injury.  I hope to get this corrected and be back to my former strength within a month.

The K-State rec center is having a powerlifting meet on April 10th.  It's about nine weeks before the next USAPL meet on June 6th.  I plan to participate, but I don't think I'll  go 100%.  This is so that I can do well in the USAPL meet.  

Overall, things are going well on the lifting front.  I have a new gym partner, which is a plus.  I think she'll help keep me motivated.

Rehab for the Left Arm

Today, I visited a physical therapist for a second opinion of sorts.  She gave me some good news, as her opinion was that it was nothing serious and I simply needed to ease into my old routine.  She admonished me to take it easy on myself and to organize my traning schedule with breaks to allow for healing.  I plan to start putting strength back into my squat and dead lift and take it slow in the bench press.  Next week, I'll start this routine and my plan is to begin formal training for my June 6 meet sometime in February or March.

I am considering abandoning my effort to drop a weight class, but I'm still on the fence, so to speak.  Any suggestion on this is greatly appreciated.

All that said, I'm just glad to be cleared to start moving weight again!

Injury Update

My arm is still giving me trouble.  I still have my appointment a week from tomorrow to attempt to diagnose it.  I won't be able to afford an MRI or anything, so I'll have to rely on good ol' diagnostics.  I have a good doctor, so I'm hoping for the best.  After that, I'll be consulting a friend who is a physical therapist's assistant.  We'll see what happens.

In the mean time, I'm going to drop a weight class.  My current bodyweight is 109 kg, and I'll need to get down to around 98 or 99 kg to be within the lower weight class limit.  That's going to be about a 25 lb drop.  

More info on the diagnosis and treatment next week.  

Injury

Well, it's happened; I believe I have my first injury. I plan to see a physical therapist in town as soon as I can. The pain is in my elbow. I think there is some tendon swelling because my hand goes numb every once in awhile. Also, whenever my elbow pops from moving my arm, it hurts like the dickens. I looked up "tennis elbow" on a medical website and it seems that's what I have. More on the situation when I have a diagnosis from the good doctor.