Hey, I have a health care plan.

Lets say that me and a few hundred of my friends and their friends believe strongly that the health of other people should be taken care of (I do). So we get together and form a group, and agree to pay each others' medical bills, and even invite in some poor or financially strapped people and families in the community to join free or at subsidized cost. We hire a few medical students to offer basic care to members free of charge, to treat simple injuries like surface wounds, and stockpile antibiotics, for the occasional basic infection. Perhaps order some generics from India at 1/10th the price. Perhaps even hire a former dental assistant to clean peoples teeth and do basic maintenance free of cost to members.  Hire a physician once a year to give people a general check-up.  Stuff like that.

Sounds pretty reasonable right? Well, nope, if you dare even try such a venture the government, insurance regulations, medical regulations, pharmaceutical regulations, licensing regulations, patent restrictions ... will kick your ass in. Should you dare execute such a plan, you will be lucky to escape with your life while Bubba, a convicted murderer, pounds your face in to within an inch of death from inside the prison facility you will surely be put in.

Get it. Meeting peoples health care needs is not a problem in a free market. Having the government involved in the insurance and medical business is cruelest form of tyranny.  Besides, if these kinds of groups in society can't do enough for the sick, then what makes people think that a democratic mob and the corrupt cronies in DC can?  In fact, lets say that 99% of society believed very strongly that they have a duty to take care of the sick .... well, if that's the case then why have a government program at all ... people paying out of pocket should more than cover it with better cost accountability.  So lets say that less than 1% want believe in taking care of the sick .... well, in that case you will never get the government to do it either.   So basically, if everybody wants it - government doesn't make sense.  .... if nobody wants it - government doesn't make sense.   Yet, somehow people think that government in health care will magically make sense in the middle range.  

But lets say you believe in the government being in the health care business anyhow.  Well, why does it need to be the federal government and not the state or city governments.  After all, the 10th amendment says "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."   .. isn't that a way of saying the states should do it, if done at all.  At least with the states there is the possibility of competition.   Forbid the federal government to be involved in any health care, kill all the federal regulations and restrictions, (kill FDA and pharma patents) then the states could compete.  Of course, when they do - I think we would find ... for the reasons I mentioned above .. that the ones that are the least intrusive in the free market will be the ones that are the most successful.   Also, why wouldn't it work?  Most states have bigger economies than most nations.  Just look at the projected Medicare costs of 40 trillion dollars by the congressional budget office (who typically underestimates costs) ... shouldn't that be telling us that we need to get government influence out, instead of having more?

Anyhow, looking in at the "group" my friends formed above.   If that group was 300 million people instead of a few hundred, it seems like it would be needlessly to big to manage - doesn't it?  And then if people were forced to be members of that group, it seems like it would become more a chore than a social activity, doesn't it?  Then lets say that they are forced to pay in, .. then it seems like there would be not nearly as much financial accountability, doesn't it?   So costs would go out of control, fewer people would by happy with the service, and it wouldn't be a sociable and friendly activity, but more a political struggle.  ... and lo and behold, this describes most socialized health care systems in the world, even the "nice" European ones where there are always debates about cost, procedures performed, and waiting periods.

Please, free market does not mean - "greedy corporations get all the money", free market means the free exchange of goods and services.   By killing it, we're only going to hurt ourselves.