Posted by
Andrews on Thursday, August 06, 2009 6:22:54 PM
Whenever the state enters an area of life it should not, new problems arise. I pointed this out before
in the context of public education, arguing that all the argument over evolution, creation, intelligent design, sex ed, values education and so on was entirely because public funds went to education. If education was entirely private, then parents would pick schools matching their beliefs and pay only for schools supporting their ideas. Thus the whole problem would be solved. It is only because public funds go to education, and policy makers set a single agenda for schools that these questions become political issues.
And, once again, the government is creating new problems. By extending the government into the realm of health insurance, the government has managed to make abortion even more of a controversy than it has been. Already contentious as the supreme courts denied the states any say in the matter, it is now about to become even more so, as the question arises whether the government's insurance will or will not pay for elective abortions. The abortion proponents argue that refusing to do so "would have the effect of denying coverage for abortion to millions
of women who now have it through workplace insurance and are expected
to join the exchange". That is a strange claim, as Obama is saying the government plan will not encourage people to surrender private insurance, but ignoring that inconsistency, you can see how this issue will heat up considerably as the government involves itself in a matter where it does not belong.
And think of the even more heated controversy should the government ever go all the way to "single payer", full nationalization.
POSTSCRIPT
One interesting point for all those on the left who want single-payer, nationalized health care. If we give total control over health care tot he government, and an anti-abortion majority should win congress, it could serve as a de facto revocation of
Roe v. Wade. They would not have to make abortion illegal, just stop paying for them while leaving them legal. With a single payer plan, this would have the same effect as banning. especially if the plan includes HillaryCare-style prohibitions on out of pocket spending.
Something for proponents of both single-payer and abortion to consider.
POSTSCRIPT II
The quote above came from a link in
Best of the Web. The original article can be found
here.
POSTSCRIPT III
I have written about the failure of nationalization in public education, including the ill-conceived "reform" of vouchers, in "
Reforming Education", "
Why Private Schools Win", "
A Contradiction" and "
Skeptics? Really? I Beg to Differ". I dealt with nationalization in general in "
Bureaucratic Management", "
Killing the Railroads", "
Are The Chinese Communist?", "
Revisting the Allende-Obama Analogy", "
Negative and Positive Rights", "
One Exception" and "
Some Questions About GM". There are certainly many other posts which deal with similar topics, but I think the best overall refutation of government intervention can be found in "
Planning For Imperfection", "
The Limits of "Scientific" Management" and "
Smaller Government , Fair Weather Friends and Special Cases".