While fiscal conservatives in the USA are fearmongering about how we are all going to pay for universal health insurance, most countries already do so. Hong Kon

While fiscal conservatives in the USA are fearmongering about how we are all going to pay for universal health insurance, most countries already do so. Hong Kong and Singapore — the two countries that top economic freedom lists every year — have publicly run hospital systems. Preventative checkups alone can save a lot of lives, not to mention improve the economy. In this case, if it ain’t patented, there is no money in investigating it. Billions are spent to promote patented drugs and vaccines, of course, in the name of public health. But you want a real libertarian policy recommendation? How about starting an open source movement in drugs, where people are FREE to build on each other’s ideas without fear of the government coming in and enforcing “intellectual property” for helping save people’s lives? Jonas Salk gave away the polio vaccine without a patent, and now it is nearly eradicated! Imagine what we could do if our scientists freely collaborated, instead of competing to extract rents and using the govenment as the enforcer. We don’t have to imagine — it happens in every scientific department except biochemistry, where big pharma has it on lockdown. Public funds are used to discover treatments, then private industry slaps some patents, uses the government to enforce them and neither the NIH nor any other public agency receives anything back from their massive profits. And what do we get from this strictly enforced system of “intellectual property” in pharma? Drugs in the USA are vastly more expensive than the same exact drugs distributed in other countries, including countries with the same cost of living. This happens because we enforce the scarcity on researching ideas ourselves. And then turn around and prevent our existing single payer systems from negotiating the prices. I’m looking at you, Medicare Part D, written by pharma execs and implemented by aides to congresspeople who quit right afterwards and went through a revolving door to work for big pharma. The regulatory capture is real. Our society needs to be based less on competition and desperation from the lower class, and more on collaboration and plenty for everyone. We would all be much better off. Here is my policy proposal I wrote 10 years ago: http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93 http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93