Masonic Medicine

Jesse Walker | January 31, 2007

Andrew Cassel asks: What can the Elks, Oddfellows, Knights of Pythias, Shriners, Foresters, Sons of Italy, Eagles, Raccoons, and Loyal Order of Moose contribute to the heath care debate?

Comments

VikingMoose|1.31.07 @ 1:45PM|#

Loyal Order of Moose contribute to general wackiness of society, thank you very much. :)

|1.31.07 @ 1:50PM|#

[Conspiracy Kook Mode ON]

AHA! See! The Masons have their greedy, power-hungry, satanic tendrils in EVERYTHING!

Sir Disgrace|1.31.07 @ 2:04PM|#

The proper plural form of 'moose' is 'meeses'. Get a brain, morans.

|1.31.07 @ 2:29PM|#

Good find Jesse. People forget just how powerful social organizations used to be in the past. About the only two still around that do anything in the public sphere are the Shriners and the Rotary Clubs, and even then they are just shadows of thier former selves.

|1.31.07 @ 2:35PM|#

In only 100 years it is amazing to see how much social will has been taken over by the State in this country and most of the world.

|1.31.07 @ 4:19PM|#

The Freemasons operate in the shadows, Kwix, you naive fool.

My grandfather was a Mason. Can I get in as a legacy? World rule appeals to me.

VM|1.31.07 @ 4:28PM|#

Pro Liberate:

No you cannot, but you can always be a STONECUTTER!!!!!!!

(re: your loyalty to Coach Dungy - can perfectly understand that. I'd cheer for him if the Beloved weren't playing against. He's done an amazing job this year. And the tears from the Eastern Seaboard Programming Network when their pats lost was BEAUTIFUL! All we need is for the Tarheels to lose, and they've been in a world of suck with their favorites!)

|1.31.07 @ 4:55PM|#

We do!

Larry A|1.31.07 @ 5:34PM|#

So lets say when your children were born you could go to some organization (Rotary, Wells Fargo Bank, Merrill Lynch, National Rifle Association, United Methodist Church) and sign them up.

The organization would assemble a package including an URA (Universal Retirement Account), health insurance, disability insurnace, etc. Any funds you, and later the children, contributed would have the same pre-tax status now granted wages in similar plans. If you really want to get radical, toss their social security "contributions" in the same pot.

As an adult, within your plan, you could change jobs, work for yourself, hold a side job, inherit, collect government benefits, win the lottery, find a $100 bill, collect damages in a civil case, no difference. It's all eligible to be tax-free if you use it as part of the plan.

You can voluntarily change organizations if the new one will accept you. The organization can terminate your participation, but not until finding you another plan.

|1.31.07 @ 7:07PM|#

Of course, a return to the early 1900s is clearly not the answer to our current insurance dilemma. Modern health care is far too complex and expensive for that.
================================
This, taken from the article, is an example of one of the journalism world's most annoying rhetorical devices.

Ooh! 'ModernTimes' are so complex! The simple solutions of yesteryear must, of course, bow in favor of something that befits our new, modern, complexity!

I think a rehash of the old system might work fine. I know many people who use mutual aid health insurance provided through a church group. They like it and it's cheaper. Overall, I think a model like this would be a great improvement.

|1.31.07 @ 8:11PM|#

This too will fall victim to selection bias. Why join my dad's society and pay for his and his friends' old age when I can be a founding member of a new brotherly order and reap all the benefits with none of the costs?

|2.1.07 @ 1:03AM|#

Roderick T. Long wrote about this in illuminating fashion about 13 years ago:

Please see here.

How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis: Medical Insurance that Worked - Until Government "Fixed" It

(Goes into a little more detail about how the system worked, and how government intervention screwed it up.)

This was one of many great papers on libertarian topics that until recently was archived at libertariannation.org. Alas, it seems that this site is no longer active -- only the Google caches of the papers remain. This is a great loss, and I mean that. :(

jb: Then why didn't that happen in the past?

Dan|2.1.07 @ 9:34AM|#

No loss...

I managed to create a mirror here.

http://www.effinghamdiscussion.com/mirrors/www.libertariannation.org/

The links are hardcoded so they don't work well but most of the content is there.

Feel free to email additional articles to [e-mail]

Larry A|2.1.07 @ 1:46PM|#

This too will fall victim to selection bias. Why join my dad's society and pay for his and his friends' old age when I can be a founding member of a new brotherly order and reap all the benefits with none of the costs?

Because your new brotherly order, starting from scratch, won't have the financial cushion of your dad's retirement savings.

|2.1.07 @ 2:53PM|#

Dan, you rock for creating the mirror site, but if the links don't work, how do I get from the main page you've linked to the archive where all the stuff is at?

|2.1.07 @ 3:56PM|#

Stevo,
You rock for bringing the insights of Roderick T. Long to bear upon the issue. We'd all be better off if he were in congress.