Paul Krugman: Insurance and Freedom

Social insurance does not undermine free societies:

Insurance and Freedom, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: …How many
Americans will be denied essential health care in the name of freedom?

I’m referring, of course, to the question of how many Republican governors will
reject the Medicaid expansion that is a key part of Obamacare. What does that
have to do with freedom? In reality, nothing. But when it comes to politics,
it’s a different story. … From the enthusiastic reception American
conservatives gave Friedrich Hayek’s “Road to Serfdom,” to Reagan, to the
governors now standing in the way of Medicaid expansion, the U.S. right has
sought to portray its position not as a matter of comforting the comfortable
while afflicting the afflicted, but as a courageous defense of freedom. …

These days, conservatives make very similar arguments against Obamacare. For
example, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has called it the “greatest assault on
freedom in our lifetime.” And this kind of rhetoric matters, because when it
comes to the main obstacle now remaining to more or less universal health
coverage — the reluctance of Republican governors to allow the Medicaid
expansion that is a key part of reform — it’s pretty much all the right has. …

[However], Medicaid enjoys remarkably strong public support. And now that health
reform is the law of the land, the economic and fiscal case for individual
states to accept Medicaid expansion is overwhelming. … But such practical
concerns can be set aside if you can successfully argue that insurance is
slavery.

Of course, it isn’t. In fact, it’s hard to think of a proposition that has been
more thoroughly refuted by history than the notion that social insurance
undermines a free society. …

In fact, the real, lived experience of Obamacare is likely to be one of
significantly increased individual freedom. For all our talk of being the land
of liberty, those holding one of the dwindling number of jobs that carry decent
health benefits often feel anything but free, knowing that if they leave or lose
their job, for whatever reason, they may not be able to regain the coverage they
need. Over time, as people come to realize that affordable coverage is now
guaranteed, it will have a powerful liberating effect.

But what we still don’t know is how many Americans will be denied that kind of
liberation — a denial all the crueler because it will be imposed in the name of
freedom.