Obamacare no match for market innovation

According to health experts, the risk of cardiovascular death has dropped by 80% in the past 60 years.

And what is to thank for such incredible advances in health care? As the diagram below shows, what's to thank are the techniques perfected in open heart surgery, the development of medications such as beta-blockers, and the innovations in biomedical engineering that have led to life-saving devices such as implantable defibrillators.

In short, what's to thank is the entrepreneurial discovery process of a free marketplace, a process defined by voluntary transactions and the educated assessment of risk and reward in an always uncertain world.

What should be given no thanks is the alarming growth in the nanny state over the past half century. Such political maneuvering has merely shifted economic resources from one political interest to another. As shown below, social welfare programs and Obamacare are not the root of the incredible progress in health care over the past 60 years - the unimpeded market is.

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