3/24/2016 - Mandatory Depression Screening & For the Beauty of the Earth

Three people check into a hotel room. The clerk says the bill is $30, so each guest pays $10. Later the clerk realizes the bill should only be $25. To rectify this, he gives the bellhop $5 to return to the guests. On the way to the room, the bellhop realizes that he cannot divide the money equally. As the guests didn't know the total of the revised bill, the bellhop decides to just give each guest $1 and keep $2 as a tip for himself. Each guest got $1 back: so now each guest only paid $9; bringing the total paid to $27. The bellhop has $2. And $27 + $2 = $29 so, if the guests originally handed over $30, what happened to the remaining $1? 

- by Dr. Ron Paul (excerpted from Samaritan Ministries newsletter)

The US Preventative Services Task Force (PSTF) recently recommended mandatory depression screening for all Americans.  The task force wants to force health insurance companies to pay for the screening...

The PSTF's mandatory depression screening mandate is based on the fallacy that diagnosing mental health problems is analogous to diagnosing cancer or diabetes.  Even mental health professionals acknowledge that there is a great deal of subjectivity in mental health diagnosis.

Consider that until 1973 homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association.  Today, some mental health professionals think that those who believe in limited government, free-market economics, or traditional values suffer from mental disorders.  If mandatory depression screening becomes a reality, it is likely this mental health screening will be expanded to cover screening for other mental illnesses.  This could result in anyone with an unpopular political belief or lifestyle choice being labeled as "mentally ill."

Even if mandatory health screening could be implemented without increasing costs or threatening liberty, it would still be a bad idea.  Government health care mandates undermine the basic principles of a free society.  If it is legitimate for government to tell us what types of health care we must receive, then it is also legitimate for the government to tell us what to eat, when to exercise, and even how to raise our children.  To paraphrase C. S. Lewis, a tyranny imposed for our own good is the worst form of tyranny because it is a tyranny without limits.  All who love liberty must therefore oppose mandatory depression screening, or any other health care mandate.