Background: There’s been a lot of discussion on the blogosphere about Ron Paul’s answer to a question about health care from Wolf Blitzer: was it a softball, how should Ron Paul have answered, etc. (For a post that links to virtually all of the prominent answers, see John Goodman’s “Answering Wolf Blitzer.”) Some of the suggested answers have been very good, although I would add that none of the answerers is a 76-year-old responding in real time under bright lights. I think that context-adjusted, Ron Paul did a great job.

But here’s what I found most interesting. In a post that purports to be a criticism of the libertarian approach to health care–the post is provocatively titled “Your life is not your own”–Austin Frakt ends up pretty much agreeing with what Ron Paul said, except that Ron Paul advocated that people be charitable and Austin Frakt did not.

To review, here was the Q&A between Blitzer and Paul:

BLITZER: Thank you, Governor. Before I get to Michele Bachmann, I want to just — you’re a physician, Ron Paul, so you’re a doctor. You know something about this subject. Let me ask you this hypothetical question.

A healthy 30-year-old young man has a good job, makes a good living, but decides, you know what? I’m not going to spend $200 or $300 a month for health insurance because I’m healthy, I don’t need it. But something terrible happens, all of a sudden he needs it.

Who’s going to pay if he goes into a coma, for example? Who pays for that?

PAUL: Well, in a society that you accept welfarism and socialism, he expects the government to take care of him.

BLITZER: Well, what do you want?

PAUL: But what he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself. My advice to him would have a major medical policy, but not be forced —

BLITZER: But he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have it, and he needs intensive care for six months. Who pays?

PAUL: That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risks. This whole idea that you have to prepare and take care of everybody —

BLITZER: But Congressman, are you saying that society should just let him die?

PAUL: No. I practiced medicine before we had Medicaid, in the early 1960s, when I got out of medical school. I practiced at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio, and the churches took care of them. We never turned anybody away from the hospitals.

And we’ve given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves and assume responsibility for ourselves. Our neighbors, our friends, our churches would do it. This whole idea, that’s the reason the cost is so high.

The cost is so high because they dump it on the government, it becomes a bureaucracy. It becomes special interests. It kowtows to the insurance companies and the drug companies, and then on top of that, you have the inflation. The inflation devalues the dollar, we have lack of competition.

There’s no competition in medicine. Everybody is protected by licensing. And we should actually legalize alternative health care, allow people to practice what they want.

So Ron Paul’s answer is that the person is responsible for himself, that charitable behavior by others, including Ron Paul’s former employer, has handled the problem, and that government intervention makes the cost of medical care higher than otherwise.

Now here’s what Austin Frakt writes:

I will send the ambulance for you. Welcome to a society that does at least that. Yes, somebody has to pay for it. If you (we) reject a socialized payment mechanism in favor of a private or libertarian one, it may be you who gets the bill. Consider it the price of being human, social, and surrounded by people who care. You can’t have it both ways.

It sounds as if there’s no daylight between Austin Frakt’s, Ron Paul’s, and my view of the issue. Like Austin, I would send for the ambulance too. I’m sure Ron Paul would too and he might bend over and try to help–he is a doctor, after all. I also, like Austin, would expect that you, the beneficiary of the ambulance, would pay for it. I bet Ron Paul would too.

In response to another commenter, Austin Frakt elaborates:

Either way, I would get you some help. That’s my choice. Now, who will pay for it? If you say that I should, do you like the incentives? If you say you should, you’d better plan accordingly.

Plan accordingly? There’s nothing inconsistent with libertarianism here.

Why do I say that Ron Paul advocated charity and Austin Frakt didn’t? Because all Austin Frakt committed to was calling an ambulance. Ron Paul actually worked for a private-sector employer that gave medical care for free.