With government constantly expanding its size and intrusion into our lives at every level, we’re at the point where virtually everyone agrees that the medical system in America is not serving the needs of patients nor of those who work in the healthcare field.
Different solutions are proposed, depending on whom one asks. But they typically only differ in superficial ways, because the solutions proposed by those who do not value the ideas of liberty invariably involve more government intervention, regulation, and centralization. Libertarians and voluntaryists are the only ones calling for a diminishment in government involvement in everything " including medicine.
We argue that the relationship between a patient and a doctor should be a voluntary one, free from third party involvement which distorts the price of goods and services and creates incentives for doctors to spend less time with each patient.
We maintain that government-granted monopoly privilege plays a hugely destructive role in the medical industry. IP stifles innovation and increases the cost to patients of everything that is able to be patented (which, in the world of medical devices and drugs, is literally everything) by giving the patent holders a government sanctioned monopoly on what they are selling.
Then there’s the FDA, which increases barriers to entry that prevent innovative people from bringing potentially life saving technologies to market without paying billions of dollars in filing fees and waiting years (while, in some cases, sick people suffer or die).
In recent years, we’ve watched a contingent of doctors retire from medicine altogether, while some others opt to move toward cash-only practices which opt out of accepting payments from insurance companies and governments. Unfortunately they are not able to decline to participate in the innumerable government regulations and rules which apply to their work.
Underlying all of this is the fact that no one may choose to opt out of government’s impositions. We are all forced to abide by the FDA’s rules, the patent system, the licensing system for doctors, and to pay for others’ care through government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and various state-level programs, regardless of whether we would like to participate in their funding.
I strongly believe that people should help one another (more about that in a moment). But when money is taken from people by force, it is not the same as charity which is done of one’s own accord.
I suspect that it’s an extremely common experience of people reading this article to have been talking with a friend or colleague about pro-freedom perspectives on medicine and healthcare, and have been faced with the question of “but who would take care of those in need if not for the government?” It’s an important and relevant question. It’s also a question that I think we can answer in a convincing and compelling manner " not just with our words, but also with our deeds.
The answer lies in mutual aid. But what is mutual aid? It’s a way for people to help each other on a voluntary basis, a powerful tool for educating others about the ideas of liberty, and, in my opinion, one of the best ways to achieve true liberty in our lifetimes.
Mutual aid is about people getting together to help one another out. There are many examples of mutual aid organizations that exist today. They include but are not limited to: fraternal organizations like the Lions Club, Elks and Masons, shelters which help people escape domestic violence, credit unions, childcare co-ops, hospitals like the Shriners Children’s Hospitals, self help organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous, religious groups, the neighborhood watch, and even families.
The above groups are organized all different ways " from highly structured and “top-down” to very decentralized; from large to small; from exclusive to indiscriminate in their membership. However, none of them rely on force to fund themselves. They must all find creative ways to exist while appealing to the generosity of individuals giving voluntarily.
Historically, mutual aid groups played an even larger role in everyday life, especially for those in society who were the most vulnerable and in need of assistance. However, the state has effectively obscured and eroded many of the mutual aid organizations which historically provided help to those in need. It is difficult to compete with an organization which claims a monopoly on the provision of certain services and has the unlimited ability to fund itself by using force (i.e., government). Yet mutual aid, in many forms, has endured.
Furthermore, there’s a solid case to be made for why mutual aid will become even more important in the future. America has a federal government, and a federal debt, which is growing insurmountably. The current level of spending on government social programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security is nearly universally considered to be unsustainable into the future. At some point, these programs will not be there to provide people who rely on them with services. We don’t know exactly when that will be, but why not prepare for it now by helping to form our own social safety nets that are organized through voluntary means?
So here’s my appeal to those who love liberty: I think the way that we can best chip away at the state is to create mutual aid organizations that help people, and to be vocal about why these voluntary alternatives show that it’s not necessary to have the state using coercion to fund its provision of these services. You can do this no matter what your skills are or where you are based. Give your time if you don’t have money; give your money if you don’t have time. Then, reap the psychological and tangible rewards. I think that if people were to spend some time thinking about what type of framework really needs to be in place first in order to have a voluntary society, a lot would come to the conclusion that these mutual aid organizations are paramount.
I volunteer with an organization called Fr33 Aid. We provide volunteer first aid and do educational outreach about CPR. For now, we have focused on providing our services at liberty oriented events like Libertopia festival. With approximately 30 team members, we are hardly equipped to meet the medical needs of 300 million Americans. But we’re starting out on a smaller scale by working within the liberty community, and so far it’s been a very rewarding and positive experience.
I see lots of exciting things happening in the future for Fr33 Aid. I want to meet more medically skilled team members, to expand in order to be able to offer mental health services, disaster relief, havens from domestic violence and homelessness, and dental care. I would like to see Fr33 Aid chapters all around the world. We are an organization in its infancy, but we are growing as awareness of the ideas of freedom grows and the message of liberty reaches more people.
As long as we can educate people about the value of freedom, I am optimistic about the future of medicine. The cost of healthcare would drastically decrease in the absence of regulation, licensing, and patents. Generosity on the part of individuals would increase, because our standard of living would rise in the absence of a government taking a cut of everything that individuals produce. We can make the future a good place where people care for one another with compassion, on a voluntary basis. The future starts now, with the growth of mutual aid networks which will show the state for what it is: obsolete.
