One of the most frustrating aspects of the debate about how health care should be governed is the mistaken claim that the world prior to Obamacare involved free market health care. This, of course, is nonsense. That health care world was the product of a mixed system – of markets in health care combined with a myriad of government regulations combined further with the government provision of health care under various programs. In my view, this system is responsible for many of the infirmities that people complain about with respect to health care and health insurance, such as problems with preexisting conditions, cost escalation, bureaucratic procedures, and health insurance access problems for people with low income.
