The Coronavirus Is Proof We Can’t Trust The Government With Our Healthcare

Quite ironically, the unexpected outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic has put the possibility of a government-run system to the test as the government seizes more control over the healthcare response to COVID-19, and the results are quite telling. 

The Consequences of a Late Response to COVID-19

Up until this point, the U.S. government has struggled to come up with a strong response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In contrast to South Korea, which was one of the first countries to start early COVID-19 testing for its citizens through free “drive-through” testing, the U.S. national and state governments placed strong regulations on initial COVID-19 testing, limiting testing to only those individuals who showed extreme symptoms of COVID-19.

As a result of these strong mandates, the U.S. is now experiencing extreme outbreaks of COVID-19 in large cities.

As a result of these strong mandates, the U.S. is now experiencing extreme outbreaks of COVID-19 in large cities, particularly Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York. Patients who experienced minor symptoms of COVID-19, who were turned away from testing facilities weeks ago due to government mandates, have since been in contact with countless individuals, and we are now reaping the consequences of our failure to test these patients early on.

The Government’s Response and Trump’s Deregulation

As a result of the rapid spread of COVID-19 due to the government’s initial regulations, the government has now taken strong measures to combat and relieve the impact of COVID-19. This week, Congress passed a $2 trillion Coronavirus Relief package. The bipartisan Coronavirus Relief bill, led by the Trump administration, was passed in the Senate with a unanimous vote of 96-0. $500 billion will go directly towards hard-hit industries, and another $500 billion will be sent as cash-checks to working individuals and families, up to $3,000 per check. In addition, $350 billion will go towards business-loans, $250 billion will go towards expanded employment aid, and $100 billion will go towards hospital aid and other struggling services within the healthcare industry. 

Additionally, through declaring the nation is in a “State of Emergency,” President Trump invoked a seldom-used “wartime” law through which he can put temporary pressure on particular industries to produce necessary medical supplies to respond to the crisis. Currently, hospitals are being overrun by an influx of COVID-19 cases. As many as 40% of U.S. markets do not have enough supplies to meet the unexpected demand of the COVID-19 outbreak, and there are not enough testing kits and ventilators to meet the number of the patients flooding doctors’ offices. Under the “state of emergency,” President Trump and the executive branch have the power to incentivize the medical field to meet the surging demand of COVID-19 cases; however, the way that they are incentivizing these industries might surprise you. 

Trump has given individual states discretion to develop their own testing for patients within their jurisdiction.

President Trump has removed massive government regulations that would normally prevent the medical industry from producing medical goods and hiring personnel. Trump has given individual states discretion to develop their own testing for patients within their jurisdiction. Normally, the states would have to request a certification from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS) before they could launch a new test. However, with this new deregulation, states have the freedom to utilize new forms of testing to keep up with the surging demand. Washington state, for example, gave the University of Washington permission to test patients for COVID-19, and they now process over 3,000 tests per day. Similar measures will be taken in Los Angeles and New York. In addition, Trump has made Telehealth accessible to Medicare and other elderly patients. Telehealth has normally been largely prohibited or under strict regulation by the DHS; however, through this deregulation, elderly patients can keep in contact with their doctor without putting themselves at risk by sitting in germ-ridden waiting rooms. 

Trump has also given hospitals permission to expand beds and personnel without having to comply with Certificate-Of-Need Laws, which could take months. Now, hospitals can temporarily hire from retired personnel or from doctors within the military. Moreover, Trump has deregulated the market so that companies will be incentivized to produce medical goods to meet the growing demand. Normally, companies that produce medical goods would have to go through a mountain of paperwork and government mandates. However, through removing much of this regulation, companies like Ford and General Electric are producing ventilators to supply hospitals, and some tech firms are 3D printing other medical supplies. 

Lessons from Corona—Free Market v. Government Control

What does the government’s action against the spread of COVID-19 teach us about the healthcare debate? Ironically, as Bernie Sanders has made healthcare the top trending topic during the 2020 election year, the COVID-19 outbreak has put government-regulated healthcare to the test. Is there a particular reason why the federal government pushed for deregulations and free-market incentivization after restricting the medical field’s ability to conduct tests? The answer is quite telling. 

Unlike the government, the free market never has a limit or “artificial ceiling” of goods and services.

During a State of Emergency, we should expect the government to take action with the fixed amount of goods available at the moment. But, if government-run healthcare were the norm, then the government would view the medical industry as having a fixed amount of goods that need to be properly distributed among the U.S. population. This necessarily entails that the Government—particularly, the DHS—would need to accurately predict the spontaneous demand for medical treatments at the beginning of every year and construct the national budget accordingly. 

This raises vital questions: what if the government gets it wrong? What if there is an over-demand for a particular treatment that they did not accurately predict? As we have seen with the outbreak of the Coronavirus, government mandates and regulations prevented medical practices from early testing and from developing new cures for COVID-19. As a result, the virus spread exponentially, and now we have a demand for COVID-19 treatments that the government simply can not regulate alone. So the government turned to the free market to meet the demand. 

Why did the government purposefully deregulate the medical field and open up the free market to meet the rising demand of COVID-19 cases? Because the free-market can do what the government alone can never do. Unlike the government, the free market never has a limit or “artificial ceiling” of goods and services. Whenever there is a rising demand for a good or service, the free market produces the supply to meet the demand. 

The Coronavirus outbreak has made us all ask if the government is truly capable of managing a national healthcare system.

Why? Because the market is financially incentivized to do so, and the outbreak of COVID-19 is demonstrating the free-market’s success to meet the demand of goods and services that the government alone cannot meet. Actions such as Ford Motor Company and General Electric producing ventilators, hospitals hiring retired personnel and military doctors, and the expansion Telehealth have proven that deregulating the free market to supply the demand of medical goods is critical for our nation’s success in combating COVID-19. 

Closing Thoughts

The contrast in the government’s response to COVID-19 sheds a new and timely light on the healthcare debate. As we have seen through the initial government mandates regulating the medical treatment of COVID-19, a completely government-controlled public healthcare system would have to approve and produce the supply of goods to meet the medical demands of the entire nation. This requires the foreknowledge and proper prediction of the medical demands before they even occur, and if the government gets it wrong, as we have seen with COVID-19, then the time that such regulations require to play catch up could have deadly consequences. 

It is noteworthy that the free market and deregulation of the medical field have shown the most significant progress in combating COVID-19 because the free market alone has the ability to meet the demand with the proper supply. As we consider if we want to revolutionize our private healthcare system by putting the medical industry in the hands of the government, the Coronavirus has made us all ask if the government is truly capable of managing such a task.

This article has been updated.