Hidden costs of libertarianism

I know I’ve discussed similar topics before on this blog (see here and here), but seeing the current political discourse (especially some of the fallout due to the president’s job bill address) I figured I should post my current thoughts yet again. Also before I get started, I want the readers that are unfamiliar with my viewpoints to understand where I come from politically. In my late teens and early twenties, one could classify me as a staunch libertarian. I felt deeply (especially after reading all the classic libertarian texts: Austrian school works, Ayn Rand, and Goldwater) that each individual was deeply, at their core, responsible for his/her own destiny and thus should be independent from any political/governmental regulations. Of course, I quickly realized to make this system more practical (physically implementable), a limited form of government was necessary to preserve individual rights, and prevent others from oppressing them.

So my world view during my post-angst years was spent believing that the world could operate in a politically Sartre-ian way. All individuals have free reign over their destinies, and as such since oppression is the root of evil, society as a whole will transcend itself… of course, as a result, utopia. Government would be minimal, people could do as they pleased as they are personally responsible for their own actions. However, after a year or so of this thought, I made some stern realizations… people are… well human. As such, infallibility reigns, and a system, such as the one that I described, which relies on mutual respect of individual liberties, crumbles immediately. I reached a state of dilemma, unsure of a perfect system for governments. One striking realization that truly rattled the foundation of my psych is healthcare in general, and the idea of insurance.

For health insurance to make sense (and to be financially feasible without subsidies from the government), people must be required to enroll in insurance immediately after birth. Now why is this? The idea is to implement some source of certainty into the healthcare system. Rather than having people to elect into the system when they are already sick or visiting a hospital uninsured, insurance companies will know what their current assets and have a good rough estimate of the outgoing liabilities (a classic accounting problem). Not however, the system is so convoluted and bureaucratic, that the only solution is to raise rates! Not to mention that insurance encouraged people to opt for expensive treatments, rather than continuously practice preventative medicine (not profitable)!