The Editor's Desk

My editorial today is about how the trans fat ban is a consequence of the public demanding government “do something” about health care costs.

Reason’s blog has another example worth exploring. Janet Riviera, in Fresno, has been in a coma for years and is being kept alive with the financial assistance of Medi-Cal.

It raises the rather horrifying ethical issue of how much of other people’s money should be used to keep somebody alive. With private insurance, this is a matter for her family. But because tax money is involved suddenly everybody gets a say.

It’s an unpleasant problem with no easy solution when we’re talking about people who can’t afford private insurance, but again it’s an example of putting decisions about health care in the hands of the government and not thinking through the consequences.