Speaking at the second Democratic presidential debate on Thursday, Bernie Sanders suggested that his “Medicare for all” plan won’t actually remove individual choice because individuals will still be able to visit whichever doctor they prefer.
This is false in a way that perfectly demonstrates the flaw of government-run health insurance.
Well, ask yourself a question, if we were truly able to visit whichever doctor we want under Sanders’ plan, why wouldn’t we all visit the best doctor in our area? And if that’s the case, how is said doctor going to be able to deal with thousands of percentage rate increases in patient requests? Moreover, even if somehow this doctor could engage in space-time manipulation of the kind that UFOs appear to be engaged in, why would they?
After all, if the healthcare sector moves to a government-run system, doctors are not going to work much more because they won’t be paid to work much more. Instead, they will work hard for eight or 10 or maybe even 12 hours and then go home to spend time with their family. Because that’s the natural human response. Because they are people with their own interests as well as their concern for others. This speaks to the underlying, sustaining, and fatally basic flaw of socialism: its disintegration of the interest-incentive-service equation.
“Medicare for all” would not allow everyone to see the doctor of their choice, it would force everyone to line up to see a doctor of the bureaucrat’s choice, on the bureaucrat’s schedule, with the bureaucrat’s rationing of care.
Put more simply, what Sanders offers is the destruction of individual interest at the altar of government bureaucracy (also, the destruction of research into new drugs and medical technologies). Again, Sanders has done us a blessing by showing clearly why his plan won’t work.
