Imagine if this was a mechanic working on your car. OBVIOUSLY the mechanic has a conflict of interest in their recommendations. Everyone understands that, so nobody would accept laws that allow the mechanic to impound your car until you do his recommended work. (generally, barring some annoying exceptions) We have a free market and can take our car somewhere else. That used to be the rule with doctors too: Get a second opinion. Yet because we treated Healthcare as something special and sacrosanct and not just a normal service transaction - instead a resource owned by "The People" - over time we've allowed a giant beast of government and bureaucracy to grow around the industry and create a protected Health Priesthood Class with incredible power in and outside the state. All in the guise of giving more people access to healthcare.

Imagine if this was a mechanic working on your car. OBVIOUSLY the mechanic has a conflict of interest in their recommendations. Everyone understands that, so nobody would accept laws that allow the mechanic to impound your car until you do his recommended work. (generally, barring some annoying exceptions) We have a free market and can take our car somewhere else. That used to be the rule with doctors too: Get a second opinion. Yet because we treated Healthcare as something special and sacrosanct and not just a normal service transaction - instead a resource owned by "The People" - over time we've allowed a giant beast of government and bureaucracy to grow around the industry and create a protected Health Priesthood Class with incredible power in and outside the state. All in the guise of giving more people access to healthcare.

This is one of the evils of "Public Health" as a concept, and I've really wanted to write an essay about the problems I have with Public Health for a long time, but I don't have a platform or an audience so it's not worth the effort.