Liberty Pen: Professor Milton Friedman- 'Health Care in a Free Market (1978)'

Source:Liberty Pen- Professor Milton Friedman speaking to the Mayo Clinic about health care, in 1978.

"Milton Friedman fields questions from medical professionals at the Mayo Clinic regarding his advocacy of a free market in health care. Liberty Pen." 

From Liberty Pen

To be frank and to simply just cut through the bullshit: if this was really a discussion about health care and health insurance in free market, the people, not government or the private health care industry, would decide for themselves where and how they get their health care. Not government or the private, for-profit, health care industry. 

I believe and at risk of playing mindreader, but we saw this in the health care debate of 2009-10 when people who were arguing against what became the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) were saying what we really need is a free market in health care, not more government control or subsidies. But that's not really what they're arguing for. What they want is an unregulated, private, for-profit, health care and insurance industry, where insurance companies get to decide how much everyone has to pay for their health care and insurance and what health care everyone should be allowed to get. 

I'm not in favor of rationing when it comes to health care when it comes from government. But pre-2010, it was the private, for-profit, health insurance industry that was rationing health care in this country, by saying they won't cover this, that, the other thing, and perhaps something else. And once a person reaches some financial cap as far as how much health care they've gotten because of their health insurance, those folks would lose their health insurance all together. 

What the Affordable Care Act does at the dismay of Socialists who want a socialized, government-run, health care system in America, is leave the private, for-profit, health care industry in place. But lays out a set of rules that this industry has to operate under, to protect health care consumers in this country. So you could argue that the proponents of the old health care system in America were making a conservative argument in 2009-10, because they were arguing in favor of the status-quo and conserving the old system.