Healthcare

A discussion on nationalized health care:

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me: Health is a fundamental human right, much like the right to life, liberty, and expression. The US government should protect this right as does to protect these other rights.

him: But competition is the most important mechanism to guarantee efficiency, improve equality, and reduce all negative effects of greed. The only way we can make health care work is if the agents providing health care are put in competition with each other.

me: Well, as you know, the US government provides many basic service to it's citizens (actually to its residents): It spends money to pro-actively protect life through police force and fire companies (that makes effort to protects all residents from death).... It set up roads so people can travel, and do all those other things that people do on roads. This is done because it is recognized (and democratically agreed) that these are very very basic actions made to protect it's citizens and residents. I feel that health, basic health, life protection health care is a basic service. It should be provided for free, like police and fire company, and roads, ....

him: Well, no. The reason why that won't work, is the same reason why so many roads are broken with potholes and police fail to protect it's people, and police brutality and all kinds of injustices. It won't work because there is no competition. The natural selection mechanism is the only thing that will ensure that the best affordable service is provided.

me: Yeah! but precisely because we want to provide very basic service, which does not have a payoff directly to support these services, that it cannot be privatized. There is no way that they can provide that service AND still make money. e.g. paid police? nobody can afford that, and government provides it "at loss" The consequence of privatization is that substandard service will be provided and nobody will be healthy.

him: ...many examples about why competition will bring the bestest and britest out of people...

me: ...same example but change such that the competition forces people to do inhumane things because it optimizes criterion of competition...

him: well! fine! here's why it won't work! The reason why nationalized health care won't work is the same as if you asked the government to provide food for all of its people. They will fail.

me: .......................................................(long silence)...............[[ Mmmm, .......... Hmmmm... I change my mind. I do think governments will fail to provide basic food supply to its people.......... (they certainly have, repeatedly)... such a simple thing... and they fail at it... and health care, even basic health care is a more complicated thing. Hmmm........]] You are right.

him: [[happy with winning argument.]]

me: [[unhappy]] [[murmer in my breath, as Galileo, Health is as basic a right to human just as the earth moves around the sun]]
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