Health Care, Part VI: Government Health Insurance in a Democracy

I’ll start blogging about something else next time, but one more on theme of government health insurance. Government insurance would be scary if America were run by a dictator. In that case, the dictator could decide what health outcomes were desirable, and then, based on his idiosyncratic ideas of a good society, could choose what medical expenses to pay for and what people/illnesses were expendable.

So, for instance, the dictator might decide that the elderly are not worth the medical expenses, and so would refuse them treatment or even take matter into their own hands. These are real possibilities in a government that is controlled by one or a few with a lifetime appointment.

However, ‘death panels’ will not happen in a true democracy (distinguished from Russia, for example, who has a “democracy” but not a political system that is actually controlled by the people). Our American system is set up so that we can ‘kick the bums out’ every few years. The result would be that if any elected official actually proposes ‘death panels’ that execute the elderly, he will get kicked out of government in the next election. The reason is simple: all of us will be elderly one day, which means that we (the people) will not support euthanasia for the elderly (and of course, the elderly themselves are one of the most active voting blocks). This line of reasoning can be extended to physical handicaps, reproductive issues, and much else.

This is the beauty of a democracy – the common citizens have the political power, and we choose the leaders whom want to speak on our behalf. In a democracy, then, government controlled health insurance would be equivalent to ‘people-controlled health insurance.’ That’s not scary at all.