Terminatorcare: Gov. Schwarzenegger writes a prescription for disaster.

Wall Street Journal ^ | 01/09/2007 | DAVID R. HENDERSON

[SirLinksalot]

MONTEREY, Calif.--On Monday, Arnold Schwarzenegger presented his proposal for reducing the number of Californians who lack health insurance. His proposal is almost indistinguishable--except in details--from that of the Democrats who dominate the California Assembly and Senate.

The Democrats tend to favor solutions involving regulations, government spending and taxes, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata's proposal--the main contending Democrat plan--hits the trifecta. It would require employers to provide health insurance; give them the option of paying a tax instead of providing health insurance; and increase spending by expanding both the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs, which provide care to low-income children--including children of illegal immigrants and the disabled.

Mr. Schwarzenegger's solution hits the trifecta also. He would require employers with 10 or more workers to provide health insurance or pay a 4% tax on all wages covered by Social Security: Look for employers with 10 to 12 employees to get creative about outsourcing. And look as well, as Harvard economist Jonathan Gruber has documented, for wages to fall in firms that offer health insurance because of the mandate. Gov. Schwarzenegger would throw in a 2% tax on doctors and a 4% tax on hospitals to help fund Medi-Cal, California's name for Medicaid. And he would expand Medi-Cal to adults earning as much as 100% above the poverty line and to children, even those here illegally, in poor and middle-income families. He hopes, by doing this, to shift $5 billion of Medi-Cal's annual cost to the federal government.

There are two problems with such solutions. First, they infringe on economic freedom, preventing, in Robert Nozick's phrase, "capitalist acts between consenting adults." Second, government solutions rarely work.

Why doesn't increased government power tend to solve the problem of the uninsured? There are two main reasons.

[oblomov]

Robert Nozick's phrase, "capitalist acts between consenting adults."

If only Nozick, Friedman, or Hayek were alive today.... we need forceful intellectual advocates for individual freedom. These are dark times. At least in the collectivist 70s there were glimmers of hope. I don't see any such hopeful signs today.