Last night I wrote: “We are very pleased to have been selected for this award and hope that other states will follow the lead that Oklahoma legislators, past and present, in creating a climate where the free market can thrive in the delivery of medical care……”

I am now hanging my head in shame and deserve all of the guff I get for having written this.  What I meant, of course, was that rather than create a climate where the free market can thrive, Oklahoma legislators, past and present, have neglected to destroy the opportunities for the free market to function in health care in this state.  

Government can’t create anything.  The free market functions continuously in spite of government, not because of it.  Even the most vicious attempts to crush market activity result in “black” markets, that activity in totalitarian societies that is responsible for the very survival of the people living under such a regime.

That I am making my way through Butler Shaffer’s “Boundaries of Order,” makes my gaffe all the more embarrassing.  More on this eye-opening book in a future blog.  I hope that those reading this will accept my apologies for this lapse.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.