Reform: Health care vs. Education

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Why talk about health?

This is a humorous text on why Education Reform is far easier than a Health Care Reform. One of prominent teachers in Poland, quit his job. He is pessimistic about prospects for change. He checked our 3-point school reform proposition and remarked that it would not work for the same reasons as the reform of the health care system. Freedom is no panacea. I say, freedom is a panacea, and our teacher is pessimistic only due to being battered by the system for many years. His intentions and talents were golden. And yet, the system never let him spread his wings. Unfreedom is the root of depression.

Health vs. Education

Freedom is a panacea for the health of the system of education. I have not seen much return to freedom and nature in the area of health. The consensus seems to be that healthcare reform is a tough problem to crack. Here I would only like to hint why education is an easier field.

Imagine how easy the reform of health care would be if it met similar conditions as education:

• there is a cheap and universal drug: exercise! Let's say, lots of running would ensure perennial health, like the learn drive ensures learning
• everyone is born with a great love for running and would gladly run from morning to evening (like children love to learn all the time)
• everyone can run in his own direction, and yet the vectors add to the global strength of the population. That's the network effect, and the population adaptation via diversity in education (see: Optimality of the learn drive)

As for distortive factors, there are no multibillion corporations such as Big Pharma that would corrupt market forces by imposing their profit-oriented will. The only educational lobby is an army of poorly paid teachers who often stay in the job because of their noble mission. This is a misinformed army. But this is no evil army.

It is hard to sell an educational product as a panacea. At the same time, miracle drugs proliferate, and overdiagnosis is rampant. Schools alone generate millions of cases of ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, Asperger, depression, anorexia, addictions, and many more.

Most of all, in medical sciences, what is good for an individual, may not be good for the population. An assistance in survival may also mean the survival of disadvantageous genes. The problem of "inherited corruption" is far less noticeable in education. Moreover, freedom is the best remedy against corrupt inheritance. Children are far less likely to reproduce the mistakes of their parents, if they are not coerced into learning the old curricula.

Last but not least, school vouchers proposed as the basis of the Reform, have a fixed value. Health care for an individual may cost millions.

Healthcare reform

All the above does not imply freedom, nature, and market forces cannot be used in reforming healthcare. They can. Human body is a fantastic healing machine. The best prevention is the avoidance of noxious factors omnipresent in modern societies. However, this is a material for an entire human life. I got only one, and my passion is free learning