Coulter nails the key problems in health care/insurance

From TownHall.com, here's Ann Coulter-- rapier-like as usual-- on health care "reform" (hat tip: Linda Christiansen)...

Coulter does a really nice job explaining the key problem in health care/insurance-- the over-insurance that moves health insurance from covering rare, catastrophic events to the far more expensive version we have today that covers virtually everything.

She only briefly explains the over-insurance from the subsidy that workers receive to obtain their health insurance through the firm (as a non-taxed form of compensation). Subsidies always give us "too much" of something-- and the subsidy to purchase health insurance is no exception. I wish she'd spent more time on that, but it's boring to read and difficult to explain in 600 words.

All the problems with the American health care system come from government intervention, so naturally the Democrats' idea for fixing it is more government intervention. This is like trying to sober up by having another drink.

...the government decided health care was too important to be left to the free market....We already have near-universal health coverage in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' hospitals, emergency rooms and tax-deductible employer-provided health care — all government creations....

The government also "helped" us by mandating that insurance companies cover all sorts of medical services, both ordinary — which you ought to pay for yourself — and exotic, such as shrinks, in vitro fertilization and child-development assessments — which no normal person would voluntarily pay to insure against.

This would be like requiring all car insurance to cover the cost of gasoline, oil and tire changes — as well as professional car detailing, iPod docks, and leather seats and those neon chaser lights I have all along the underbody of my chopped, lowrider '57 Chevy....

But politicians are more interested in pleasing lobbyists for acupuncturists, midwives and marriage counselors than they are in pleasing recent college graduates who only want to insure against the possibility that they'll be hit by a truck....

The whole idea of insurance is to insure against catastrophes: You buy insurance in case your house burns down — not so you can force other people in your plan to pay for your maid....

You don't have to conjure up fantastic visions of how health care would be delivered in this country if we bought it ourselves. Just go to a grocery store or get a manicure. Or think back to when you bought your last muffler, personal trainer, computer and every other product and service available in inexpensive abundance in this capitalist paradise.

Third-party payer schemes are always a disaster — less service for twice the price! If you want good service at a good price, be sure to be the one holding the credit card. Under "universal health care," no one but government bureaucrats will be allowed to hold the credit card....

Instead of making health care more like the DMV, how about we make it more like grocery stores? Give the poor and tough cases health stamps and let the rest of us buy health care — and health insurance — on the free market.