What If The Government Ran Health Care?

Plenty of pundits are predicting what our nation's health care system would be like if the government was in charge of it.

In this brief note, just consider our government's track record of running other public services. And consider their cost.

Amtrack? United States Postal Service? Military procurement?

No matter what costs are forecast, they have always cost more when the government does it. Way more. Health care would be no different. Instead of a flu shot at the local drug store costing you $10 to $20 - by the time the multi layered system delivered it to you it would cost you $100 in taxes.

Why did that famous $800 hammer cost $800? Production limits, tough specifications, hundreds of people developing, producing, administering, and delivering the hammer, accounting for the hammers, analyzing the hammers, hiring a staff to study the hammer performance, commissioning a panel to see if we really need the hammer, conducting a congressional investigation into the waste fraud and corruption in the hammer development cycle, and more.

Maybe we should just buy each doctor a hammer and have them hit everyone in the head in the fall.