“The Beach Reporter” recently reported that local teens from the Manhattan Beach Mayor’s Youth Council explored the idiosyncrasies and complexities of “what makes a good health care system?” As part of their investigation, students visited Harbor-General UCLA, under the mentorship of four emergency room doctors. These students, who have health insurance, witnessed health care provided for those who do not have their own coverage. One student remarked, “I’ve never really tried to learn about health care before this.”
Apparently, their visit did not improve their understanding. Following their visit to Harbor-General, the students presented arguments for the “perfect” health care system. The very notion that medical care can provide “perfect” care without cost is sheer folly, a statist mindset which has propelled progressives in California and Washington D.C. to institute price-controls and lawsuits against insurance companies and health care providers. The students learned that doctors love to treat patients. Did they also learn that a high incidence of accidental deaths, legal difficulties, and rising costs have forced hospitals to close? Did the students investigate the negative impact of universal health care policies like those enacted in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Scandinavian nations?
The students who visited Harbor-General UCLA ignored matters of price, efficiency, and red tape, which prevent competition and force patients and hospitals to weigh costs and invest resources ineffectively. Future voters and health professionals like these young people need to discuss resurrecting free market reforms in medical care, not design fruitless paradigms of “perfect” health care.
