I'm bothered that this article seems to believe that the rise in homeschooling (in large part by unqualified parents using low-quality textbooks and ill-considered strategies) is another example of people 'opting out' of some particular brand of oppression by the State, and that doing so will increase supply, or something?

As far as I'm concerned, students have a right to a high quality education because without one their future will be a trainwreck. Just because they're largely minors doesn't, to me, mean that their parents have the right to deny them a future in favor of whatever their personal reasons may be. Yes, this is an infringement on the 'rights' of parents, but I don't think parents have the right to treat children like property in the first place.

And yes, there are some parents who do a great job homeschooling; I'm sure of it. I've just never met them, and I was extensively involved in local homeschooling programs back in my home town, so I interacted with dozens of homeschooling families, hundreds of homeschooled kids, and visited some of the organized conventions and programs that involved thousands more. Too many of these people simply aren't qualified to teach a child from the beginning up to college age, even if they may have the legal freedom to do it.

As it relates to the article's premise: I also think individuals have a right to reasonable health because it is integral to their future. A nation full of sick people is going to be a nation with low productivity and a high tax burden from running things like emergency rooms. It is in our best interest to offer everyone affordable access to some basic minimum level of health care, and to do so in the cheapest possible manner. The author seems to believe that a comparison shopping website for doctors will deliver affordable health care to everyone, but I think he ignores a few essential issues that could make it impossible for such a website to deliver good results:

a) Even now, many people who need health care do not have regular access to the internet. This is in part due to the huge stretches of rural America, but it is also due to the fact that we have a huge homeless population and a huge low-income population, both of whom may not even be able to afford the equipment necessary to get on the internet. You certainly aren't going to propose giving them free equipment and internet access so they can go buy health care on a website.

b) It is arguably impossible to comparison shop for essential health care. You don't have the time to waste on it and you are emotionally/mentally compromised by the stress of your impending doom. To a degree, this is correct - you should be prioritizing your own well-being. It should be the responsibility of everyone else in the system to try and keep costs for this essential care to a minimum; instead, a profit-driven health system tries to maximize profit off this essential care, and deny claims to as many dying people as possible. Introducing more profit motive into this system does not seem like it will fix anything.

c) Medical practice over the internet without licenses is simply a recipe for disaster. I am willing to accept that a licensed doctor could perhaps perform a subset of their duties over the internet; I occasionally email my doctor instead of visiting them in person when I need minor adjustments to medicine doses, and that is fine - both sides are fully informed and no corners are being cut. However, if you're not even going to license them to verify that they meet the basest standards of medical competence, you'd be mad to also let them practice without ever seeing a patient in person. It's just a bad idea. We have enough issues with malpractice and patients being sold treatments they don't need as things are; removing licensing and medical standards will make this worse as both of those problems can be increased by a profit motive.

d) Comparison shopping for long-term health care seems nearly impossible since in many cases, if you discover the care you are getting is suboptimal, it is too late to switch - whether because of pre-existing conditions, or because the care is ongoing and transferring to another provider would put you at risk. You can't trivially ask to have your dying father moved to an intensive care unit across town just to save a couple thousand dollars, even if you CAN do it.