This afternoon, one radio talking head noted that Health Care and College Education are the two industries that really, really have us all by the short-and-curlies. My gut reaction to this is, “D’uh!” Health Care and College Education are two of the most heavily regulated industries.

Some callers noted that a broken leg cost $36,000 or a ruptured appendix cost $25,000 for four nights, or that post-natal nursery care costs $2,000 regardless of whether the infant spent any time in the nursery. A caller was quick to chime in with “The cost of health care in the last decade has risen by 500% (or something) and the cost of cars has only gone up 15%, why does the government allow this to happen?“.

Now, I’m on record as describing “universal” or “single-payer” health care as moral hazard of epic proportions, because the concept, almost by definition, violates every principle of proper (by which I mean “actuarially sound”) insurance. I would go as far as to suggest that outside of State socialism (and we all know how well that works…) universal health care is a metaphysical impossibility: “Successful” and “Single-payer” should never appear in the same sentence.

In all fairness, the scariest part about Universal Healthcare is the amount of control it would give bureaucrats over your life, as if they don’t exercise enough already. But you might dismiss that as tinfoil-hat-paranoia, “Our bureaucrats are noble and benevolent,” you might protest.

Fine. So what if they are?

Universal, single-payer health care doesn’t work in Canada (e.g., “some health care for poor people” but inadequate care for anyone else) and it doesn’t work in the U.K. (e.g., flat-out denials of arguably needed services, etc.). Single-payer health insurance didn’t work in Massachusetts, despite all their ham-fisted attempts to outlaw the laws of economics, and it goddamn-well isn’t going to work anywhere else some half-wit politician tries to implement it.

So, back to the question, “Why does the government allow this to happen?”

The government not only allows this to happen, its policies cause it to happen. If you think TEH GOVERNMENT is going to solve the “health-care crisis,” or the “education crisis”, you’re in for a rude awakening.