More Government Regulation Leads to Inefficiency

by Steve Bierfeldt ~ September 23, 2008

“It would be one thing if all this money we spend on premiums and co-payments and deductibles went directly towards making us healthier and improving the quality of our care.  But it doesn’t… Each year, 100,000 Americans die due to medical errors and we lose $100 billion because of prescription drug errors alone.”

 - Barack Obama

While not factually incorrect, Obama’s statement is directly at odds with the free market system on which our nation was founded.  The framers of the Constitution understood that limiting government intervention was the surest way to provide for a strong and vibrant economy.  When restrictions are placed on businesses those organizations are unable to meet the demands for new technology and better products.  When tax hikes are implemented those businesses no longer have an incentive to innovate or create more efficient ways to work.  In the American health care system, the endless levels of bureaucracy attribute to a lack of innovation and actually lead to an increase in illness and death.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was established in 1906 and is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The FDA is responsible for some successes, such as ensuring products remain unspoiled and contaminated food is not sold to customers.  However when bureaucrats like Barack Obama urge government to do more, we see its true nature begin to show.  Picture an administrator for the FDA arriving at a press conference and stating, “after 10 years of research we have finally approved a new blood pressure medication.  This year 10,000 lives will be saved.”

It sounds good in theory though consider that stream of logic.  If this year 10,000 people will be saved due to the drug’s approval, it means last year 10,000 people died waiting for the drug to be given the green light.  It means over the past five years 50,000 people died waiting for its release and since the drug’s initial testing, 100,000 people died waiting for it to be approved by the government.  Those people would have been better off trying an experimental drug or taking the drug without FDA approval.  As with many government agencies, the FDA is a bureaucratic agency run amok.