Better Late than Never
A couple of years ago I got into a rather spirited debate with Robert Graboyes, who is the Senior Healthcare Advisor for the NFIB. You can find this discussion here, here and here.
I was advocating holding a firm line on healthcare reform. I believed that the system as it had evolved in the US was fundamentally flawed. What was needed was radical free market reform and not one more round of layering more regulation onto an industry that was already heavily regulated.
Dr. Grayboyes thought that I was being rather naive. Here is what he said in a comment he posted at my blog:
He did go on to state:
In a later post when the healthcare socialization train was pulling out of the station, I pointed out that "pragmatism" and trying to "settle" for as much as they could get was actually leaving small business empty handed. They had been, well, duped through an old social activism trick called cooptation:
My concern with becoming part of the "dialogue" came not from my chair in an ivory tower, but from my days as a healthcare entrepreneur. Many of my views on the role of government in the economy came from my days as an entrepreneur when I watched how the process of lobbying and "settling" on issues of economic and regulatory policy really worked. Rent seeking and political horse-trading does not lead to sound policy for the country, just enrichment for some of those who have enough money and power to sit at the table.
And it always seems to result in an ever expanding role of government in our lives and a loss of liberty.
Trying to have a voice and to find a way to influence the process got nothing. Thankfully, the NFIB now realizes this. Dr. Grayboyes sent out a link to a new video from the NFIB that is sounding the alarm bells about the current plans for healthcare "reform".
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