Single-Payer Violates Constitution?

On May 26, the New York Times had an article regarding the attempted collaboration by President Obama and the major healthcare industry players to lower costs. In the article, it was discussed how such collaboration could violate anti-trust laws.

Two things occurred to me as I read this: first, legal concerns haven’t stopped this (or other) administrations from violating laws before. Look at how the Troubled Asset Relief Program has been used- not one cent has gone to Relief for Troubled Assets. More importantly, however, I wonder if conservatives have found a new way to attack single-payer health care through anti-trust laws.

When I was a kid, I heard the joke “What is the only monopoly in the country?” “The post office.” The government, which broke up Microsoft for being a monopoly, had the single greatest monopoly in the nation. Similarly, by creating a single-payer system, the government is getting rid of competition. If we follow the logic behind preventing monopolies- because the monopolizing entity controls the product, creation of the product, etc.- having single-payer health care will do exactly that.

A great argument for nationalized health care is the elimination of the cost of insurance marketing- according to the Dennis Kucinich campaign in 2007, it’s around 30% of the cost of business. Single-payer would almost eliminate such costs, bringing administration costs down to about 4%, according to the same members of the Kucinich campaign.

The counter, of course, is why don’t we create monopolies in every aspect of our American markets? Because a no-competition environment creates a situation where a provider can charge basically whatever price it chooses (in the case of health care, the price elasticity is extremely limited), obviously, and it can diminish services however it sees fit. And since the government is made up of people, who are naturally flawed; hires on more people than necessary (unions, politicians, etc.); and tends to take care of its own (http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/14/morning-bell-the-public-sector-union-threat-to-economic-recovery/), you can guarantee the 26%-or-so of savings will disappear.

My point is simple- beyond every other concern, the same Democrats and liberals who decried Bush’s allegedly unconstitutional/illegal wiretapping, interrogation techniques etc. had better make sure their long-term goals include the same legality they clamored for over the last nine years. Since the ever-so-popular public option is guaranteed to lead to single-payer health care (as Stuart Butler of The Heritage Foundation analogs, would you trust an umpire who worked for the other team? Also, a Republican on the Ways & Means Committee accurately stated that businesses cannot run deficits forever…but governments can), we’d better make damn sure we hold the liberals to the same standard they wanted for us.

-dustin