WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Home HIV Test about Putting Patients in Charge of Health. “According to the Washington Post, the FDA is currently considering approval of a new home HIV test, which could be purchased over the counter and administered within 20 minutes by performing a simple gum swab. . . . Beyond the AIDS struggle, giving people more control over their health is a necessary part of creating a sustainable health care system in this country. A dependency culture—waiting passively for the doctors to take care of it—both infantilizes people and raises costs. Naturally, there are limits to how much responsibility you can expect from people, but a health care system that unnecessarily restricts individual choice and costs so much that it will bankrupt the country is also a bad idea. More power in health care and more responsibility needs to go to individuals; they will sometimes make bad decisions, but doctors and public health ‘experts’ are also mistaken from time to time.”

Indeed they are.