Healthcare reform

It is always fun to listen to different perspectives. A colleague at work has some very interesting take on economics and the role of government. He calls himself a "classic liberal" and believes that the role of government should be reduced to the minimum. The guy is very smart. And you do listen and respect opinions of smart people. Got me thinking. I agree with him that the government almost always creates a mess - look at social security, healthcare, foreign policy etc. We can all agree that these things need some heavy duty fixing.

Anyway, we were discussing the role govt should play in healthcare (if any.) In an ideal world, the market should dictate the supply and demand for such services. But we do not live in an ideal world. The supply of doctors is controlled by a strong lobby in Washington. This powerful lobby makes it so difficult for newcomers that we will never have enough doctors. And these guys continue to make 7-digit salaries. We all know what the evil HMO's do to the cost of healthcare. What is the common person supposed to do? How can the normal Joe maintain his trust in the system that is heavily controlled by special interests? All you guys who believe in market equilibrium should take a step back and think about the reasons why "market equilibrium" maybe difficult to achieve and may cause a lot of social tension. We all want a stable and prosperous society that encourages entrepreneurship and rewards hard work. At the same time we have to make sure that people are not left behind. Social and economic tensions cannot be good for a free market economy.

I will end this post by saying that we should avoid letting our personal economic conditions dictate our thoughts. At one point Milton Friedman was a big believer in Keynesian economics.