Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to I'd agree with some of what you say

Market
TB — (archived)

There's plenty of free market competition going on Tom and it's a nasty sight when they're allowed to do their thing. All that stuff should be tackled if the system becomes governmental. I grant it will be a mess. However, the first thing is to eliminate the part that simply isn't necessary, the insurers. Get some breathing room first and I'll be right there with you bitching about any governmental overreach.

Do you really think charging two bucks (or whatever) for a tongue depressor is the result of a free market in action?

I can look around me every day and see where the (mostly) free market has resulted in excellent goods and services across the income spectrum. So can you. And yes, medical care is a service, the same as car repair, fixing flooded basements, or any other as-needed urgent service. Some of which are covered by individual private insurance, BTW.

As I tried to point out in the last post, medical care was a lot more affordable back when more of it came out of our wallets and not from some invisible third party. There's a REASON for this.

"Burden of care lifted off businesses?" Who the heck do you THINK is going to be footing the bill? You think voters will tolerate that burden being shifted to their own individual taxes? You think all businesses will just "pass on the savings" in higher salaries? If panicked politicians decide to "tax the rich" for it, guess where the money's going to come from anyway. Right. Businesses. Only this time the businesses won't have any choice at all in providers or plans. The only advantage might be a greater ability for employees to change jobs.

What we have now in health care is a horrible chimaera of public and private, with the worst features of both, and heavy regulations preventing the normal market forces from coming into play. It's the result of decades of constant movement toward centralized control of the system.

Since nobody in Washington, including the Republicans, knows how to ratchet things in the other direction, I expect that nationalizing the system is inevitable. The call of "free medical care" will appeal to many who won't think too hard about it.

The world will then find out what happens when the most successful business in town, the one that's been holding the others up, tries to give everybody the "senior discount."

A generation down the road, only older people will remember what medical care used to be like. For the rest, it will be the way "it's always been." Those who can afford it will continue to use private care the same way as many people now flock to private schools even though they are still taxed for the public ones. Do you really think your "rich" are going to be standing in the same line as you are? Do you really think government care is going to be just as good and a lot cheaper, a faith that flies in the face of almost EVERY experience we've had with major government programs?

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