Insurance and government.(Between The Lines)

ITEM: ABC News reported on Oct. 24: "The Institute of Medicine found that 18,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance.... There is universal access to treatment via hospital emergency rooms, but a trip to the E.R. doesn't come cheap. 'It costs dramatically more to treat someone in this way,' ABCNEWS' Medical Editor Tim Johnson said. 'For instance, someone with insurance who has a cold can go see their doctor and get early treatment. Someone without insurance has to wait until he has pneumonia before he gets treatment.'"

ITEM: The Charlotte Observer for September 30 reported that the number of Americans "who don't have health insurance rose sharply in 2002," reaching 15.2 percent of the population. The "plight of the uninsured is one of the most crucial problems in modern medicine," said the paper.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Underlying these reports is the false premise of most lamentations about the uninsured: If there is an inequity, government must fix it. But the inequity that government is supposed to fix has been made worse by government.

For instance, because governments have required coverage for more than 1,000 conditions, the overall cost of insurance has been driven out of reach of many. Nearly one in four uninsured Americans--some 10 ...