Thread: Paying For Health Care

Originally Posted by solecistic

My question has always been - you don't mind paying for public school, why do you mind paying for health care? I just don't get it.

(This is probably unrelated; did not read walls of text. Sorry.)

Schools lead to productivity which leads to the creation of money. The creation of money leads to a higher standard of living. Honestly though, I do mind paying for public schools too. I have yet to see a government program/service that comes anywhere near the efficiency possible in a truly free market.

Originally Posted by Syme

Defense is probably an obvious example. There's no way that a private company or any other non-governmental group could ever possibly provide the services of national defense that the United States government currently provides.

Well, the US government uses a lot of contractors for that work these days. Under normal circumstances though, I would agree that defense is one of the very few roles that the government should undertake.

EDIT: On the topic of health care, government health care programs in various European countries provide medical care at a substantially lower per capita cost than does the US system of private insurance companies. I'm not sure what you mean by "efficiency", but they are cheaper and don't leave 15% of the population uninsured, so that's a plus.

So, their shitty system is mildly better when it comes to cost than the shitty system we have now. How about we try a real free market health care system? One in which I can call around to clinics and hospitals and get real pricing information. I wouldn't take my car to an auto shop that wouldn't tell me their pricing, but I have to get my health care that way.

Originally Posted by Trojan

So, their shitty system is mildly better when it comes to cost than the shitty system we have now.

"Mildly"? US per capita health care costs are $6000 per year. For most developed European countries, it's around $3000 per year or less. They also don't leave nearly 50 million people uninsured, as the US system does.

Originally Posted by Trojan

How about we try a real free market health care system? One in which I can call around to clinics and hospitals and get real pricing information. I wouldn't take my car to an auto shop that wouldn't tell me their pricing, but I have to get my health care that way.

Are you saying that in this system, people would pay for their medical care out-of-pocket on an as-needed basis, rather than having medical insurance? That's what it sounds like you are implying when you talk about calling around and checking prices.