Health Care - Devils Advocate

Miscellaneous General
1

  1. How would a free market deal with an individual with leukemia? An insurance company wouldn’t want to insure that individual because it would cost them money than most. Wouldn’t insurance be unaffordable/unattainable because they already have leukemia?

  2. Imagine we magically had a true free market in health care tomorrow. Insurance companies would be able to compete, new companies would be allowed to enter, ill-run companies would be allowed to fail. Regulation would be done by the market, rather than government. Wouldn’t we still be screwed because the market takes time to correct the misallocation in resources? Those that were forcefully under government care would be out of luck.

2

I want a Ferrari 430 Spider, but I can’t afford it… Nevermind. That’s not a sob story.

3

  1. You would most likely only have insurance for things such as leukemia. Your insurance wouldn’t cover things such as a runny nose or itchy eyes. These would be out of pocket expenses. Since the insurance would be only to cover things least likely to happen to you, the insurance policy would be cheaper. If you are one who can’t afford the insurance, hopefully there will be people willing to donate towards your cause. It’s amazing how much people are willing to donate even in today’s society where we are taxed as much as we are. Can you imagine how much more people would donate in a free market society with very limited government or no government at all?

  2. Market corrections happen much quicker then when it is under government control, as far as history tells us.

4

It is conceivable that many people would be covered for such illnesses if they were insured before the illness broke out. The same goes for children who are born ill. Parents should be able to insure their unborn child if they so desire to.

If you were not insured, then you have to bare the costs directly, however: it is completely erroneous to analyze the situation with today’s non free market prices and services. What would treatment for leukemia cost if we had a free market? - free market prices to efficiently allocate resources, no subsidized coverage driving up demand, no overhead bureaucracy, no doctor monopolies, etc. Scarcity is a fact of life. There will always be things that some people cannot afford while other can. The only option is to alleviate this fact. The free market can do that, the intrusions by the government only impair this process.

There will always be charity. Charity is a free market phenomenon!

5

The free market would and treats the patient simply as a consumer. A more prudent radical alternative is needed.

The alternatives that the two individuals above me have suggested have proven to be unsuccessful

6

Correct. That means that business will bend over backwards to provide a constantly improving product at a constantly falling price to this simple consumer.

7

Mind showing me when and where it didn’t work?

Thanks!

8

Health care is not the same thing as health insurance.

9

This comment assumes that we live in a free market, where companies are able to compete for the business of individuals. However, the health care and ehalth insurance industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in this country, which by definition is not a free market.

10

When I bring up this point, I get into a yes the market can, no the market can’t argument. ANy suggestions for combating this debacle?

11

I usually just bring up specific instances in history where the government did very little to “save” us from depression/recession/panic or whatever it is they called it during that time. The Depression of 1920 and the Panic of 1819 are a couple that I often use as an example.