For centuries governments were, and many still are today, essentially private businesses for the “Royal” families. The United States of America was the first country in modern times to be founded on the principle that the People, and not a person or group of persons, was the Sovereign. Government was to be the servant of the people and not the master. It was to secure their rights and claim none for itself. However, those times and those ideals are largely in the past.

Sadly, one must ask after all of the government involvement in energy, agriculture, price fixing, retirement programs, grants, nation building, foreign wars & entanglements, mandates and entitlement programs, is the Federal Government now a business or a government? It cannot be both, but sadly it is trying to be. For a free people, it is unnatural and wrong for the government to be a business just as it is for a business to be a government. The government’s place in business is generally in regulation or in supplying a good or service that is owned, by Natural Right, by the public. Such services would include national defense, public water, and law enforcement.

Sadly, the government has done much, much more in the health care industry than regulate or supply the basic services the public has empowered the government to provide. In the health care industry, it has become an insurer by representing low income and elderly Americans as the payer of their medical goods and services, determining which services should and shouldn’t be covered, and a dictator of prices to the private sector by informing them how much they will receive for their life maintaining and saving goods and services. While it has thus been playing the role of Business, it has neglected its role as Government by failing to break monopolies in the insurance industry and setup the proper and just guidelines requisite for a free market health care system.

Additionally, the government assumes the role of master, rather than servant, when it plays in business. How? First, It dictates to Americans what they have to do to remain on health care. In a previous life, we lived in the inner city where many people were on government aid. One such family was very close to us. The mother was single and could barely walk due to her weight as well as a degenerative disease in her feet. She was in need of surgery to correct the problem and was on Medicaid. Thankfully, she had surgery on one foot and was in the 6 month recovery time before she could receive the surgery on her other foot when she received a letter from the Government stating that her son made too much money for her to remain on Medicaid. She either had to go off of Medicaid or her son would have to quit his job or move out. He chose to leave home and we took him in. He left not because that was his intention had he been left alone, he left because of the role of master the government had assumed. Also, this is not an isolated incident but is one that is repeated every day across this great land. Granted, if they supply health care for all, this becomes a moot point. However, the principle remains unchanged in the authority delegated to Government.

It becomes master by dictating what services a person needs and what services they don't need – even if their doctor recommends them. It becomes Master by forcing citizens to pay for the government's coverage. It becomes master by dictating what it will pay to American businesses in reimbursement. It becomes Master by being able to become involved in the health of every American. Whether it chooses to exert this role or not will largely depend on the people at the head of government and this agency. Nevertheless, these are not the roles upon which good government is based.

Furthermore, the government’s unnatural role in health care has certainly been part of the problem that has brought us to our current situation. Its low reimbursement levels to doctors and hospitals have actually pushed prices up for private insurers and even higher for the uninsured individual – forcing them to cover the costs the government refuses to pay. It has also caused small clinics and doctors to suffer (1). The government has also failed miserably in its role as government by failing to break the Insurance Industry’s monopoly on health care by not repealing the Federal anti-trust exemption and creating the proper framework for a free-market system in health care (2). These failures have contributed to an unprecedented increase in health care costs which has made it impossible for lower wage Americans to purchase affordable health insurance. Because of this, the government has actually contributed to the elimination of the market for low-income insurance plans.

Who is to blame for this? In part, the government. Last year, Congress received a 9% satisfaction rating – its lowest in history. Also, 1/3rd of Americans thought that Congressmen were corrupt (3). Amazingly, Americans are still looking to the government to fix the problem with health care. They should think again – unless their fix is government getting out.

Adam Smith wrote in his 1775 Lectures on Jurisprudence:

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel or which endeavor to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical.”

The government’s increased involvement as a business in health care has, as we are now seeing in the problems we are facing, disrupted the natural course and balance with the market place and will disrupt, directly or indirectly, all three pillars necessary for a successful society. And, according to one of the world's greatest economic philosophers, this will lead to more oppressive and possibly tyrannical government as it is forced to find methods for payment to cover its ever increasing budget shortfalls caused by its very involvement in the business side of health care (4).

Unless we wish for the natural balance of market forces to continue to be thwarted by the Government’s involvement in the business of health care - which would bring on additional hardships for American citizens through increased taxes, poorer service, and more government intervention in their lives - we need to seek to limit, or end, the Government’s involvement almost entirely in the business side of health care – not expand it.

Although the government’s role in health care has served the needs of many Americans, its role has created an imbalance in the market place that cannot be corrected except by creating a free-market system. Further nationalization will not correct the problem. As it has been shown over and over again, it will further it (5). The time has necessarily come when it becomes critically important to limit, or end, the government’s business involvement in health care or we risk an unprecedented financial disaster and a limitation on our individual Rights. It is time to elevate the government back to its role as regulator before it takes on further roles as Master.

I pledged allegiance to the Republic – not a business – and I want my Republic back.

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