|
|
|
Dr. Michael Guadagnino holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from the New York Institute of Technology and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from New York Chiropractic College. He served as Vice President of Public Relations for the New Jersey Libertarian Party from 2017 to 2022. Dr. Guadagnino is the author of the best-selling book Fitness Over 50, 60, 70 and Beyond, available on Amazon and other major platforms. He also shares health and wellness insights on Instagram at @Dr._Guadagnino. As a regular guest contributor, Dr. Guadagnino writes on health care topics through the lens of personal freedom and individual liberty. |
For decades, Americans have been told that government-mandated health insurance would make care more affordable and accessible. Yet the opposite has happened. Premiums, deductibles, and overall healthcare spending have all skyrocketed, while patients face fewer options and more red tape. Instead of promoting freedom and affordability, government mandates have inflated costs and eroded individual choice.
A government mandate forces individuals and employers to purchase insurance that meets specific requirements set by politicians and bureaucrats, not consumers. The Affordable Care Act (ACA), for example, required all plans to include a long list of “essential benefits.” While this was meant to ensure comprehensive coverage, it eliminated flexibility and drove up costs. A healthy 25-year-old who only wanted basic catastrophic coverage suddenly had to buy an expensive plan covering maternity care, mental health services, and more; even if they would never use them.
These one-size-fits-all rules distort the natural balance of supply and demand. Insurance companies, forced to comply with costly mandates, raise premiums to cover the added risk. Employers, burdened by expensive group plans, cut benefits or shift costs to employees. Meanwhile, administrative complexity explodes. Doctors and insurers must hire entire departments to navigate compliance paperwork, coding systems, and billing regulations; a bureaucratic tangle that adds billions to national healthcare spending without improving care.
Another consequence is consolidation. Large insurance and hospital corporations can absorb the cost of regulation; small, independent providers cannot. This drives competition out of the market, leaving consumers trapped between a few massive insurance carriers and hospital networks. Patients lose their trusted local doctors, and healthcare becomes more impersonal, more corporate, and less transparent.
When third-party payers, whether government or private insurers, dominate the system, true pricing disappears. Patients rarely know what anything costs until the bill arrives. Negotiated rates and hidden fees obscure the real value of services. If consumers could see prices upfront, competition would naturally push costs down, just as it does in every other industry. Instead, mandated insurance keeps the system opaque, inefficient, and expensive.
Beyond economics, there’s a moral issue: freedom of choice. Mandates tell patients what treatments, doctors, and even philosophies of care they can pursue. Holistic and preventive options like chiropractic care, nutrition, or alternative therapies are often excluded, discouraging proactive health habits. From a libertarian perspective, every individual has the right to make their own health decisions without interference. Mandated insurance replaces that freedom with dependency on bureaucrats and corporate middlemen.
The solution isn’t more government control, it’s more freedom. By allowing patients to buy insurance that fits their needs, pay directly for routine care, and choose their providers freely, healthcare could return to its proper purpose: promoting wellness through trust, transparency, and personal responsibility. True healthcare reform means giving control back to the people, not the system.