Laissez faire doesn’t work in health care
The big lie in the ongoing health care policy debate is that if government were simply to butt out of the health care industry, the invisible hand of the free market would create the competition necessary to improve health care and bring down prices. There is no free market in health care because it’s impossible for ordinary people to make informed health care choices. Competition results from well-informed, knowledgeable consumers making choices among a number of available alternatives, but the complexity of health care prevents consumers from becoming well-informed. Therefore, true competition cannot take place.
Big business/small-government advocates cry “let the markets work!” and claim that deregulation will give consumers more choice. Why is no one calling them on this? It’s because suppliers of health care goods and services rely on consumer ignorance to maximize their profits, some of which goes to lobbyists and campaign contributors who assure our legislators that the system will work fine if government would simply get out of the way.
You and I may eventually become so educated that we can make truly informed choices among competing health care alternatives, but until then the solution is for local, state and national governments to step in to force the healthcare industry to start providing the benefits to consumers that would reasonably be expected from true competition.
PHIL MOïSE, ATLANTA
Delta guilty of bait-switch practices
Good for Ann Coulter, who was a victim of Delta’s practice of bait (offering a good seat to sell a certain flight) and switch (moving her to a less desirable seat). This appears to have been done arbitrarily as Delta did not explain why they did this. I have been a victim of this more than once. We can’t expect much better in Atlanta, where Delta has a virtual monopoly.
RON KURTZ, ALPHARETTA
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