Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote an outstanding article for yesterday’s Forbes.com on health policy. One of the points he makes is that Republicans too have promoted political control of medicine:
…Republicans have been responsible for major expansions of government health care programs: As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney oversaw the enactment of the nation’s first “universal coverage” plan, initially estimated at $1.5 billion per year but already overrunning cost projections. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pledged not to raise any new taxes, has just pushed through his own “universal coverage” measure, projected to cost Californians more than $14 billion. And President Bush’s colossal prescription drug entitlement–expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade–was the largest expansion of government control over health care in 40 years.
Brook briefly reviews the rise of political controls of medicine that have created today’s problems, then he outlines the proper approach rooted in individual rights.