Donald Trump heads to Capitol Hill today to push the passage of a health care bill he doesn’t understand:In my opinion
Economist Bob Murphy suggests an analogy to food, to illustrate how ObamaCare (the First Five Year Health Care Plan) rejects the free market to the detriment of health care consumers. Let’s say the nation decided to deal with the problem of the hungry by saying that everyone had to buy a food plan. If you couldn’t afford it (or might have to give up your iPhone to buy it) the government would subsidize it. The food plan provided that you could go in the store and get whatever you wanted. Pretty soon you’d have shortages of everything, as people ran in to stock up on stuff. The price of food would skyrocket and the “need” for government to subsidize food plans would seem more critical every year.
This seems absurd to us, because we have experienced a (mostly) free market in food. But what if this experiment with food plans had begun decades ago? What if virtually nobody alive remembered what it was like to have a free market in food? If someone like me came along and said: “Dude! I found your problem! It’s these food plans! You just need to have a free market in food!” I would be derided as an ivory-tower egghead. Food isn’t like other commodities! I’d be told. It’s not a luxury item. You need food to live. People aren’t going to give up their free food. And what? You want millions to starve?
And if some narcissistic blow-dried ignoramus came along and told us that the Magic Solution was to institute a New Five Year Food Plan, I’d keep telling everyone the same thing: “We have to have a free market in food. Free markets are the only way you’ll get the costs down. I know you don’t understand this because you’ve had food plans your whole life. But empty shelves and lining up for hours for cheese isn’t normal. There’s a better way!”
Well, there’s a better way for health care, too. In any area not covered by insurance (like LASIK), prices have come down and quality has gone up. Having a third-party payer system, which has arisen because of government distortions in the market, will keep prices high — and subsidies, whether you call them subsidies or “refundable tax credits,” will only make it worse.
Freedom. The market. These are the mechanisms that will drive down the cost of health care and make it affordable. Tinkering with different ways to redistribute the wealth won’t work. It never has and it never will.
I couldn't even bring myself to read your rant in its entirety! Too many blaming the victims from the beginning!
The first thing you said that is wrong is "the free market!" There is NO FREE MARKET in healthcare. . .in fact, at best, health care should NEVER BE A MARKET, but a service and a RIGHT. But since, in the US, there must be a "market" for healthcare, at least recognise that it is NOT FREE. . .but the main players are COLLUDING and price fixing! So your whole premise and comparison with food is a failure.
If every burger joint decided to price their plain burger at $10.00 instead of the current $2 or $3, sure, people would have a choice to go to Burger King or to McDonalds. . .but they would still pay anywhere from $10.00 to $15.00 for something that is worth a mere $2 or $3!
Why do you think that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY can provide healthcare at ⅓ to ⅔ of the cost of the US, and still maintain a quality that is SUPERIOR to US healthcare with a lower child mortality, and a higher life expectancy? BECAUSE the government is involved WITH private industry and assures that price fixing doesn't happen!
I hope the healthcare system gets fixed. . .but it is certainly NOT what Ryan and Trumdon'tcare offered that will fix it, or that will reduce the cost!
The ONLY thing that will eventually reduce the cost of healthcare in America AND provide basic coverage for all is the public option. . .supplemented (for those who choose to do it) with private insurance! Basically, what Medicare already offers to seniors (who, by the way, are the most expensive population to cover, and still Medicare manages to cover them at everyone's satisfaction much cheaper and much more efficiently than private insurance!).
Get real! Stop eating and drinking propaganda and start studying the subject, start looking at other types of healthcare with HONESTY, with a willingness to learn and to admit that YOU CAN LEARN something from OUTSIDE the USA!
