CRAIGforCONGRESS

Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

 

 

 

Congressional Issues 2006
SOCIETY
Healthcare



National Platform of the Libertarian Party
Adopted in Convention, July 2002, Indianapolis, Indiana

III. Domestic Ills

Health Care

Recent decades have witnessed growing government involvement in the health care system. That involvement has led to bureaucratic top-down management, rapidly escalating prices, costly regulations, the criminalization of the practice of medicine, and a host of other problems. None of these problems was prevalent prior to the time when government began to increase its involvement. We believe that government involvement is the principal cause of many of the problems we face in the health care system today. Therefore we favor restoring and reviving a free market health care system.

We advocate a complete separation of medicine from the state. We recognize the right of individuals to determine free from government interference and its harmful side effects the level of insurance they want, the level of care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use, and all other aspects of their medical care. We oppose any government restriction or funding of medical or scientific research, including cloning.

We support an end to government-provided health insurance and health care. Both of these functions can be more effectively provided in the private sector. The high cost of health insurance is largely due to government's excessive regulation of the industry. Government's role in any kind of insurance should only be to enforce contracts when necessary, not to dictate to insurance companies and consumers which kinds of insurance contracts they may voluntarily agree upon.