I read the Thomas piece and found it stupid.
It’s a confused welter in which he seems to be targeting health care reform for supposedly perpetuating our reliance on “hospitals, doctors and medicines” when we could be finding cures for diseases by letting the free market loose on them.
All we have to do according to Cal is hamstring the FDA and trial lawyers, and the new paradigm will make us vastly more healthy.
Cal is either unaware of or ignoring the research currently ongoing into cancer and chronic diseases, the limitations inherent in depending entirely on drug companies to fund said research, and the need for an empowered FDA to oversee pre and post-market drug testing, without which we will have many more ineffective, unnecessary and potentially dangerous drugs. (I kind of like the idea of lashing large numbers of product liability lawyers together and dropping them overboard in the Marianas Trench, but I digress).
It is mildly humorous to see Cal waving around the word “cure” and damning long-term medical care for chronic diseases. You can hear the alt med enthusiasts cheering loudly, only to stop aghast at Cal’s solution of turning things over to Big Pharma.