Notes on Healthcare from

a Free Market Perspective

Senate Health & Human Svcs Comm Hearing -April 15, 2010
Debra Medina R.N.

Distinguished members of the committee:

It seems that on the campaign trail, mre ha1.e no shortage of limited-government

rhetoric and ideology but once in the halls of the legislative bodies a malignai~t
mutation occurs such that those very ideals never see the light of clay.

For example, the charges you ~villacldress today and in the coming months read
like a recipe for government intei.\~entionand microil~anagementrather than the
aspirations of a conser\rativc legislature cletermined to preserve and protect the
freedom and prosperity of her citizens. Certainly a state shoulcl be concernecl
about the health and welfare of her citizens. Efforts to provide for our citi~ens
however ultimately result in greater neeel anci dependence and undermines the
very freedom and prosperity we are sworn to protect.

Noted econoinist Ludwig von Mises noted "Interventionism cannot be

considered as an economic system destined to stav. It is a method for the
transformation of capitalism into scxialism by a series of successive steps."
(Middle of the Road Policv Leads to Socialism, April 18,1950.)

Most of America sees the flawed logic ancl unclerstands the catastrophic in~pact
additional federal intervention m~ill11al~eon the clualitv, availability and cost of
healthcare and \.et the charges that iTouconsicier, in effect the goals that have
been set in these cl~arges,woulcl leael Texas clo~vnthe same treacherous path.

If we're to adopt public policy that will insure Texans enjoy access to world-class
healthcare and foster the highest level of services, a~ailableto the greatest
number of our citizens at the lowest possible cost:
WE MUST nullify any and all federal regulation that reaches beyond the scope of
Art. I Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution including the recentlv passed "Patient
Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act",

WE MUST repeal mandatcs that presume a legislatix~ebodv can prescribe an

assessment of and plan of care for our citizens,

WE MUST look for every opportunitv to eliminate subsiciies.. .subsiclies to

insurance companies, subsidies to health care prox.iciers and subsidies to citizeils
based on an arbitrarv set of standards

WE MUST adopt policies that promote coinpetition slid choice and repeal those
that create government-enforced artificial scarcity.

Finally, a reminder from one who understood freedom and whose ideals have
stood the test of time, "Protest as much as you like that its acts are inspired b\
the purest philanthropy, are designed as incentives to virtue and industry, are
bonuses, favors, direct protection, so-called gratuitous gifts, alleged acts of
generosity; behind these fine appearances, or if you will, these fine realities, I will
show you other less gratifying realities: the rights of soinc violatecl for the
advantage of others, liberties sacrificed, proycrtv rights usurpecl, cayabilitics
curtailed, acts of plunder perpetrated." Bastiat, F., t t o l ~ o / t l l t' Y I F ~ ~ I [ ~ ) )lr\
~ S , ington-
on-Hudson, New York, USA: 1996 (First published In 1845).