Lecturing and writing on the virtues of free market health care, while personally clinging to a traditional HMO-style health plan, is a lot like the preacher preaching moderation. Isn’t it?
Nothing is more obviously disconcerting than watching a size 54 preacher pound the pulpit while shouting, “And these excesses will damn you to hell, people!” Well, I say, “What’s good for the pew-sitters is good for the pulpit-pounder.
So it is with agents, academics, providers, payers, lobbyists, lecturers and speakers who tread throughout America, selling, describing, desiring, designing, leveraging, and talking about consumer-driven health care. If you believe it, live it, I say.
Rosanne (my wife) and I own a $5,650 deductible plan with an HSA that will be fully funded by the end of the year, and into which we have had to dip twice so far. Our only regret is that we do not have a $10,000 deductible plan with the consummate HSA feature still available. The fact is, however, that we would still own a high deductible health plan, because we not only talk and write about it, we believe it.
We believe in consumer-driven health care because we believe in the superiority of free markets, and even more so, the superiority of liberty. My passion for this issue stems from belief, not from recognizing that I can gain something from the current debate over health reform.
Recently, for instance, I learned something disturbing about a major conservative think tank that advocates for free market health care. Essentially, none of them “walk the talk,” but instead, cling to their low-deductible plans, and by their actions, endorsing the entitlement mentality – it’s hard to pay attention to what they write.
When a fat preacher tells me to lose weight, the only weight lost is when I leave his church.
Perhaps the first thing we should do when confronted by a health reformer is ask the question, “What kind of health plan do you have?” At least we’d know whether to consider leaving the church, or just be skeptical of their conviction.
What do you think? How do you feel about this?
