Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This account, or at least should account, for a very small minority of interactions with healthcare facilities. sadly its not. you're in pain? you need to visit a medical facility to figure out whats wrong. without knowing how serious it is it can lead to a life long issue. again you don't really have choices here. pay the healthcare tax or risk long term issues. there is a reason preventative medicine is cheaper (…
> sadly its not. you're in pain? you need to visit a medical facility to figure out whats wrong. without knowing how serious it is it can lead to a life long issue. again you don't really have choices here. pay the healthcare tax or risk long term issues. I don't see how that is a congruent thought. The 'sadly it's not' doesn't follow from your statement after. If you are in pain without knowing how serious it is, yo…
> You're not going to walk into the first hospital you find and say "I'll pay anything you ask just fix me."
these two statements are functionally equivalent. by running around paying every hospital for opinions you're literally saying 'I'll pay anything you ask just fix me'. It also tracks with my statement that medical pricing isn't influenced by rational markets which are what is required for a capitalist free market to 'work'. people need to be able to say 'this is unnecessary' which never happens in health care.
In healthcare you have two modes: 1. I can afford the care, price is fairly immaterial make me better. 2. I can't afford the care, doesn't matter what the price is.
> that backs my point, right? Those hospitals aren't funded by emergency care either, which means the point about costs being a one sided negotiation while the other party is dying is still inaccurate.
not sure how you get to this idea. the point is you're hung up on the dying aspect which is basically immaterial. I can torture you and get you to say anything I want. medical care is basically the same thought process for those who need care. The only thing that prevents people from paying any price is literally not being able to afford it. Otherwise people will 100% bankrupt themselves to make pain go away.
Given that the majority of bankruptcies in the US are due to health care just proves this point.
There is no way to make this kind of market work in a 'free' market system.
> I don't see any reason why taxpayers should pay so a small mountain town
we already do. you can argue whatever you want but as a society we've already mandated this level of access. for the same reason we've mandate fire and police coverage. its a public safety issue and a tax payer in bum fuck no where have the same right to have their taxes ensure they're covered as joe shmoe in NYC.
There are MANY reasons why this is economically a good thing via 2nd/3rd order effects that more than pays for itself.
> I don't think recognizing the limits of a given resource is cruel or immoral, it's reality.
every country with universal coverage disagrees with you. I'm not going to belabor this point further. Reality has proven otherwise. The US system is just completely dysfunctional. and thinking otherwise DOES make you cruel and immoral. If you want to discuss how to make a healthcare system that works, fine, but I'm not going to moralize with you on a clearly disgusting world view.