My Letter to National Review Magazine re: Medicare

Re: The Roadmap Back to AAA, by Kevin D. Williamson

Dear Sirs:
Kevin D. Williamson expresses in one sentence the true essence of Medicare when he states that it is "a welfare handout disguised as an insurance policy and structured as a Ponzi scheme."

Real insurance is sustainable, but Medicare is not real insurance. Most Austrian economists agree with Ludwig von Mises and Hans-Hermann Hoppe that it is impossible to insure one's own health, because the insured has too much control over the event that would trigger disbursements. Little needs to be said about the unsustainability of a Ponzi scheme. So we are left with Medicare as a welfare handout. Therefore, the real question is why the American middle class feels that it needs a welfare handout. My gut feeling is that most Americans feel that their taxes have been consfiscated for little benefit to themselves and that Medicare is one program that allows them to recoup some of their loss.

Patrick Barron