Hidden costs

We often hear how great a government-run universal healthcare program would be. Leaving aside the demonstrably lower quality of care such systems produce (compare, for instance, waiting times and covered procedures between the UK/Canada and the U.S.), there is a fundamental tradeoff at the heart of this approach. In effect, citizens surrender control of their lives in exchange for a half-hearted promise to keep them alive. Think I'm exaggerating?

Imagine a country where the government regularly checks the waistlines of citizens over age 40. Anyone deemed too fat would be required to undergo diet counseling. Those who fail to lose sufficient weight could face further "reeducation" and their communities subject to stiff fines.

Is this some nightmarish dystopia?

No, this is contemporary Japan.

The Japanese government argues that it must regulate citizens' lifestyles because it is paying their health costs. This highlights one of the greatly underappreciated dangers of "universal healthcare." Any government that attempts to guarantee healthcare must also control its costs. The inevitable next step will be to seek to control citizens' health and their behavior.

I've no problem with government being a cheerleader for healthy lifestyles. By all means, warn people about trans-fats, tobacco and THC. Free people need information upon which to base decisions. But then, those free people need room to make those decisions, with the cost of poor choices falling solely upon themselves. Universal health care inevitably ends up subsidizing bad habits through the taxes of those who do well, or else it becomes draconian, outright prohibiting non-approved lifestyles.

Some will say I'm defending the freedom of people to eat, drink or drug themselves to death. That's one way to look at it. But I've said this more than once: any government strong enough to save you from yourself poses as much or more of a threat to your 'life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.' It sets itself up as a god, issuing constant revisions of the "10,000 commandments" and looking for a bland conformity that usually result in dull uniforms and cultural revolutions. Rather than seek allegedly benevolent hegemony from the State, far better to cultivate an individualistic spirit, one that encourages both choice and the accompany responsibility for the results of those choices.