Government controlled health insurance will only work in the long term if the entire industry is confiscated by the government.
It is all well and fine to say that "basic health care" is a right (though I disagree) but so long as any portion of the industry is open to economic pressures it will eventually break down. Otherwise you eventually will have a situation similar to what happened in the California energy crisis a few years ago: one side of the negotiating table is obligated to purchase regardless of price (once health care is a basic right then government can't deprive you of it simply because it costs too much) while the other side is free to set whatever prices they can.
Different systems shift around who exactly in the complex equation gets to be "capitalist" but so far there always has been some elements of it. And the problem is that once you completely shut that down (doctors can't escape from Mediciare billing hell by moving into high price specialties; pharmaceutical companies aren't allowed to charge what they think a drug is worth, etc., etc.,) then you'll start to have difficulty finding anybody (other than the consumers, of course) willing to enter the industry. Altruism is certainly a part of it for most doctors but if it was the only reason and not also the promise of fiduciary reward we'd have a lot more social workers.
Other countries have various programs and most of them have significant flaws that we'd also be uncomforable with. Extremely long waits for care, significantly restricted lists of available treatments and procedures. So, the wealthy in those countries still get better care. They use their national services for what things it is good at and then go to other jurisdictions for things it is not good at.
I don't really have a problem (even as a libertarian) with the idea that in our complex modern society some form of "fundamental health care" is a basic provision of society as a hole. I just have a problem with what has come to be viewed as "fundamental." Every time you have a sniffle I don't think you're entitled to a government funded doctor's visit. Contraceptives and improved sexual performance (for either gender) are not an issue of fundamental rights. So the problem with creating a new civil liberty is that there is no hard line to define it. Just because it is something done by a doctor does not make it something that government should pay for and there is no easy way to decide what belongs in which bucket.
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Everyone in this thread is one serious illness or special needs child away from the poorhouse.
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Not me, because I don't try to cover every little thing that might happen to me. I just focus my financial spending on catastrophic coverage. If I have $50,000 in bills it will seriously screw with my life but I'll get through. But once I hit about $80,000 I'll be ok. Because I want medical insurance, not medical assurance. As soon as "insurance" is required to pay for all medical expenses then it, of course, will cost exactly as much (plus administration costs) as all medical spending and is no longer insurance. |
