The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

200 Chapter 33 • Doctrinaire
It is probable that
more people die
because medicines
are too long withheld
from them by
regulators than are
killed by premature
approval of new
medicines.
From The Economist
January 8, 1983
and dishonest healers both inside and outside the
ranks of orthodox medicine.
When one brand of medicine has a
monopoly over the kinds of medical practice
that may occur, orthodox practitioners have
less incentive to innovate and a greater ability
to cover their faults. When facing competition
there is greater incentive to innovate, to prove
successful treatments, and to reveal the faults of
competitors.
While it is true that the average patient
doesn’t know much about sophisticated and
technical professions, he or she can seek the
advice of certifying agents who will do the
investigations for them. But the fi nal decision is
still in the hands of the patient, not politicians.
What if a patient makes a wrong decision? It
is possible. However, wrong decisions will also
be made by politicians, especially as they do not
have the same interest in a person’s life that is
not their own. Even if a patient, or the advisor of
his choosing, makes an unwise decision, it is his
right to decide because it is his own life.
Won’t a person become a burden on society
by making an unwise health decision? A burden
only occurs when the government forces people
to pay the health costs of others. If force is not
used to pay health costs, then individuals must:
1) pay their own costs; or 2) persuade others to
pay voluntarily through mutual aid societies,
charities, or insurance. Either way, voluntarism
provides a greater incentive for personal
responsibility in caring for one’s own health.
Isn’t the cost of health care too high for
an individual to pay by himself? The cost of
health care is high because of the monopoly
favours that politicians have been handing to
the very powerful medical lobbies for more than
a hundred years. The surest road to dramatic
cost reduction is through competition in a free
market. As always, competition lowers prices
while improving both innovation and service.