Real Costs of Health Care

July 20th, 2009 by Jason Kelly

Barack Obama and his accomplices have made the health care industry their latest target. Obama is taking the message of medical bureaucracy around the country, and recently appeared on ABC to promote his plan to administer health care for the masses. Obama’s main selling point on this issue seems to be “rising costs”, or “lowering the cost of health care”. But what are the “costs” of health care? Obama does not know. No one does.

Debating the costs of health care is pointless unless the concept of “costs” is clearly understood. In his plan to lower health care costs, Obama points to health care premiums, administrative costs, and the prices charged for medical products and services as costs to be reduced. His “plan” also brings up the issue of losses caused by inefficiencies and poor quality care. These elements certainly qualify as costs, but the costs of health care are much more expansive.

Cost must be distinguished from price, especially in the context of a proposal to try to reduce costs through the brute force of government. Cost, simply put, is everything that must be given up in order to produce any given good or service. The “cost” of health care goods and services, therefore, are much larger than simply the prices paid for insurance premiums, hospital stays, or even the losses due to inefficiencies.

Vast costs must be incurred in order to provide a single iota of health care, especially under the current regime of government controls and mandates. Those costs are incurred by millions of people around the world who have no idea that they are working to provide health care to anyone. Foregone opportunities by medical and nursing students, professors, college administrators, and hospital and medical office employees are obvious unseen costs, but the true costs can never be known, much less controlled by any one person or group of people.

Think of the millions of people it takes to build, staff, and supply a single hospital. The cost of the physical building itself can never even be estimated. There are indescribably complex industries providing tools (and the materials to make the tools), concrete, steel, tile, roofing materials, wiring, plumbing, and thousands of other necessary physical goods. The same can be said of the process of supplying the medicines and medical equipment within the hospital, and these costs only apply only to the physical materials. Hundreds of people must also voluntarily make the personal sacrifices necessary to staff the hospital.

Under the current paradigm, there are also massive costs associated with building code restrictions, zoning laws, and myriad state and federal laws and regulations. The time and effort expended in complying with government dictates and obtaining government approval are further costs of health care. Once the true nature of costs is brought to bear, it is readily apparent that forcefully lowering the costs of health care is chimerical at best. How will Obama, or anyone (or any group of people), reduce these costs? Whence come the powers that give any person or group the ability to reduce the unknowable costs of providing medical goods and services?

Applying the correct definition of “costs” reveals the danger of forceful interference in any sphere of economic activity. What impels many millions of people to cooperate in the unfathomable undertaking of providing a single hospital or doctor’s office? They simply seek a reward for their efforts. Obama’s plan to lower health care costs will in reality only lower their inducement to incur those costs, and will make alternative uses of time and resources more attractive.

Tags: ,
Posted in Politics | 11 Comments »

The Last Freemen in Middle America

May 7th, 2009 by Robert L. Sirianni Jr.

The current policies of the Administration destroy the principles uniting the States with the Federal Union. Such interventionism severs the distinction between the various States and Federal Government, especially in the realm of economic policy. A healthy, market-based economy stabilizes the social order. An interventionist policy, expanding the power of the Federal Government and the role government obtains in setting prices, interest rates, wages or taxation, wreaks havoc on the ability of free people and a free market to reverse economic decline.
Eventually, the interventionist policies, which expand credit and Federal programs, will result in the following consequences: first, the expansion of credit during an economic crisis will cause inflation and currency devaluation the likes of which have not been replicated in this country, ultimately resulting in a depression; second, the expanding role of the central government will deprive the States of their equal position within the Constitution; and third, private ownership and control over the means of production is substituted for government ownership—Socialism. The principles of a free Constitution are irrevocably lost when a people forfeit their right to self-government and individualism, allowing the Federal Government to assume power far beyond those granted by the original instrument of the Constitution.

The economic policies and stimulus packages will fail for practical and legal reasons. The most basic practical reason is that the federal government does not have the infrastructure or ability to disseminate over 1.2 Trillion Dollars of newly created capital. There simply is not enough staff or oversight in Washington for the purposes of flooding the market with this much capital. The new debt remains unused because there is no conduit available to properly distribute the capital for businesses or banks. As a result, the Federal Government has simply increased the amount of debt, while at the same time, prevented people or business to actually reach into their pockets to use it. This new debt also loads future generations with the burden of paying back the deficit. Generations to come will be responsible for carrying the burden. These generations will find it impossible to perform or repay such obligations.

Such policies, if not checked, signify the decline and fall of the American Empire and will erode the cultural and political values which make America unique. For this proposition we turn our eyes to Edward Gibbon, writing in the 18th Century about the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire, he writes: “It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.” Chapter 2, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon points to various vices accounting for the fall of Rome. However, the moral disintegration of the Praetorian Guard was one cause, in particular, leading to political instability for the Empire and eventual demise of Rome at the hands of foreign barbarians.

We are the final Praetorian Guard—the Last Freemen in Middle America; but instead of promoting the vicissitudes of our country, we serve the Republic with an uncompromising discipline, devoted to liberty and the Rights of Man; we are the wall, separating prosperity from decay, enlightenment from extinction, reason from mysticism, capitalism from statism, and the thought of a lasting empire from the vanquished ideologies of imprudent masses and politicians, having no idea of a nation’s futurity or purpose.
There was a point in this nation’s history when her people considered their lives dependant on the Nation; when the pride of being an American meant a call to action, not only for the one’s self but for the improvement of fellow countrymen. Today the Champions of Liberty sit by, idling, patiently waiting for the drum beat to sound again. But we are hearing the wrong, vacant sounds; we are hearing the sounds of the “Pied Piper” who speaks of statism, interventionist monetary policy, altruism in the name of the social good, subordination of the individual to the State.

The sound we seek is a disproportionate tune, an outlawed sound from unbroken hearts, emanating from the minds and hands of patriots, whose lives and industry burst forth a spontaneous energy and heroic voice of Rebellion from generations past removed.

Imperio in Imperium

The Constitution is a compact among the States, and, when, such as the present time, the Federal Government is determined to erode all facets of Federalism and State sovereignty, the States must exercise their indivisible powers, acting to counterbalance the seizure of power by the Federal authority. The doctrine of Imperio in Imperium translates: “sovereignty within sovereignty”. This principle speaks of the division of power within a single jurisdiction. In America the States are co-equal sovereigns with the Federal Government. The Federal Government is created by the consent of the States and only continues to exist so long as the compact remains and the States consent to the law making power of the Federal Government. The doctrine of State’s Rights limits the power of the federal government. As James Madison states in Federalist No. 45:

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.” Federalist, No. 45.

Today our leaders are bent on confiscating wealth, distributing capital, in the name of the public good, to create more jobs, or to impart fairness on one group over another. The result is parasitic-liberty is forfeited for the “progress” of a portion of society, sharing no interest or appreciation for the arts and sciences and man’s industry. Angels do not organize society; rather social organization comes from private ownership over the means of production and the ability of a free people to contract, pursing separate interests without government intervention. The singular purpose of government is a strong national defense and to protect the citizenry against foreign invaders as well as from force and fraud, internally. Beyond this purpose any government intervention into the affairs of freemen is tyranny—the only response is: “Nemo me impune lacessit”—“no one provokes me with impunity.”

State Sovereignty Resolutions

Recently 36 States reasserted their sovereignty. The State Sovereignty Resolutions uphold the legal mandate expressed in the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—that the Federal Government is one of limited powers and the States have a right to be free from undue regulation and control. Such Resolutions acknowledge that the States are not agents of the Federal Government; that current federal laws directly conflict and violate the Tenth Amendment; and the federal government may not usurp the rights of the citizens of each State.
I take a moment to summarize a few provisions of the State Sovereignty Resolutions with special emphasis on the State of Texas Resolution, H.C.R. 50, introduced by Governor Perry. It states:

RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States;

RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further;
RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.
The Resolutions are blazing from State to State. The passage of such Resolutions signifies that the States and people of the States will not continence even the slightest erosion of their liberty, and, although WE THE PEOPLE have unique self-interests and competing pursuits, the promise of liberty unites, outweighing any private motivations or indifferences.

Market Based Solutions

The solution to the current economic issues rests in market based solutions, abstaining from credit expansion, and reasserting the principles of limited government. There is a conflict between the expansion of government, on one hand, with free market liberalism, on the other. The market based solution to the economic issues confronting America is simple—Cut Taxes. Put money back in the hands of consumers and the taxpayer. Allow the individuals who actually spend money to do so.

Currently banks are holding onto the capital created by the stimulus packages. In addition, government and private industry are colluding to set prices—remember, in a market economy a monopoly cannot exist without government intervention. Yet, these government agents and committees are working with private businesses to tell the consumer what the proper value is for an asset, security, stock or other item and service. The combination of private industry with government power will result in a false impression of the actual market value for an asset or security instrument. The rules of the game must remain stable. Rational choices cannot be made when the rules of the game change. Today no one can predict what the rules are because government is changing the calculation.

In this country we are guaranteed nothing but the freedom to succeed or fail—there is only one maxim we must hold fast: freedom of entry/freedom of exit. The solution again is simple—get government out of the economy; prompt banks to reduce or liquidate their assets at market rates without government approval or sanction; let market forces drive prices and value; allow failing banks and businesses to suffer the consequences of their actions and rationalization plans; permit new market entrants to take over where old industries, products, and services have expired or whose position in the market place no longer has value; let business and industry compete on an open playing field with freedom of entry and freedom of exit and rules that do not change at the whim of public opinion or clamor. If these solutions occur, we, as Americas, will affirm the greatest WORDS ever uttered by man: “GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!”

Posted in Law, Politics | 13 Comments »