“First, do no harm”

I keep thinking of this simple concept when everybody comes down from On High (i.e. Washington, D.C.) telling us all how the health care system is f**ked up, and needs to be fixed RIGHT THE HELL NOW!!!!!

Maybe so. Don’t make it worse, Washington.

And, given the housing industry, the car industry, etc., etc., in fact every single government intervention into our economy all the way back to the New Deal and beyond, the politican’s track record for “fixing problems” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

In short, my default position is that anything you try to do will make things worse than they are now. But you’re welcome to convince me otherwise.

Postscript: I saw This over at National Review Online[*1] which appears to be on point:

As the great Arthur Seldon said, “Risks which cannot be removed or shifted profitably must be born by the entrepreneur. He will generally do so only as long as his expectation of profit outweighs the chance of loss.” Systemic risk can therefore exist only when there is systemic removal of that chance of loss. Government (or organized thievery = same thing, essentially) is the only thing that can do that. Systemic risk cannot therefore exist without a government distorting the market.

So, what kind of additional “systemic risk” will be introduced by a much larger intervention of the government into the health care system? Or do you even care that the likely result will be, as in England, waiting periods measured in months for even routine surgeries?

First, do no harm.