Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
bloomberg.com
Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
1–10 of 77 posts
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#2I'm not sure I buy the reciprocal-altruism argument, but the article's thesis seems ineluctably true, however unsavory.
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#3The article does raise an interesting point in that most people don't necessarily see food as an inalienable right that people shouldn't need to pay for.
But to counter that point our government has set up a system of farm subsidies and management to ensure affordable food is available to pretty much anyone... and even those who don't have the money get food stamps.
Seems like the government tries to do the same thing with the health sector, yet it still costs more than most people can reasonably afford. It seems like there are clear market pressures and competition in food production that drives the price down to a minimum. That does not seem to be the case with health care.
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#4Despite any implementation problems, I don't believe that someone should have a worse chance of keeping their life in the face of disease just because they are not as wealthy. That alone means that society is considering some people's lives more important than others, which is not a society that I would like to live in.
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#5The conclusion of the article is a bit ridiculous. tl;dr healthcare isn't a right because we can only spend a finite amount.
Yeah, ok, but that dismisses priority entirely. Scarcity is still in play, so you treat the immediate needs first. I think we do have capacity in the healthcare system to do it that way. The author of the article basically bucketed a sprained ankle and a stroke in the same category, and concluded, nope, we don't have enough money to treat all that cancer, heart attack, stroke and scrapes and bruises equally, so it can't be a right. I guess, but who's really arguing for the right to get an ace bandage right now? Just because we have to prioritize access doesn't mean healthcare can't be a right. Today we prioritize by medical need and by who can pay. Single payer means everyone can pay, so prioritize by medical need. The right can be subject to objective need.
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#6But it's not a business, not in its current implementation. Right now it's a implicit government protected monopoly for lots and lots of things. Case in point: EpiPens which are in the news today. When the government makes it hard to develop alternatives but doesn't pay for the monopoly it creates, it's neither a business nor a right. It's a disaster yet that's where we find ourselves today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/upshot/the-epipen-a-case-s...
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#7"People need a lot of things. You’ll die without food long before you’ll die without health care, and yet few people say we need to “take the profit motive out of farming”."
"Why is health care Special"
I tell you why healthcare is special. You cannot buy healthcare at the cost of food. I can buy ramen noodles and survive for cheap. Sure it is not the best but I won't frikin die. But If I get cancer and cannot afford a 100k Bill (yes, I know a family member who got that bill) , I will die. See ?
Again, people are talking about making Healthcare a right in America is mostly due to the fact that it is too expensive and difficult to deal with. If that was not the case and healthcare becomes as cheap as food, I bet people will stop the whole "healthcare is a right" movement. I would.
EDIT: Read this fun fact [0]. The average cost of health insurance is $17,500 PER FAMILY . Now this means that you may get covered for diseases such as Cancer but that does not mean you won't get a huge bill even after insurance. Now imagine you had no insurance and you get cancer. Compare this to average cost of food [1] for a family of 4
[0] http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/health-insurance-premium...
[1] http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/sites/default/files/CostofFoodFeb20...
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#8Despite any implementation problems, I don't believe that someone should have a worse chance of keeping their life in the face of disease just because they are not as wealthy. That alone means that society is considering some people's lives more important than others, which is not a society that I would like to live in.
[deleted]
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#9Health care should probably not be a right, but universal heathcare has a lot to recommend it from a social and economic policy perspective.
For example, people who can't afford to see a doctor will eventually end up in the ER, at enormous cost that can't be recouped, and that could likely have been prevented.
Also, having a maximally large healthy working population is something that has a direct economic impact
Re: Health Care Is a Business, Not a Right
#10Despite any implementation problems, I don't believe that someone should have a worse chance of keeping their life in the face of disease just because they are not as wealthy. That alone means that society is considering some people's lives more important than others, which is not a society that I would like to live in.
>That alone means that society is considering some people's lives more important than others
No it doesn't. Healthcare does not happen through some fictitious consensus of "society". It happens through individuals interacting one with one another and forming a natural order. To claim that healthcare is a "right" ultimately means healthcare providers are slaves.