From: Jeff Bone (jbone@jump.net)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 23:04:27 PST
> You can't ignore HMOs just because they are a part of the system that
> you don't like.
Sure I can. And do.
:-)
> >But since when did healthcare become a right?
>
> One of the Reith Lectures [1] this year was about the effect of
> healthcare in the third world. The thesis was that by providing basic
> healthcare, governments could make a big reduction in the level of
> poverty.
Yeah, yeah. Opinions are like.... well, you know the adage. Bottom line, for
every academic non-market economic "theory" out there, there's an existance proof
that the market works when you leave it alone.
> When you are earning only just enough to live on,
...you work hard and get a better job.
> even a
> minor illness can put you in dire straits,
...and hopefully you've paid your *private* insurance premiums, or at least you
hope that your employer did.
> and anything worse can
> completely ruin your life
...can it ruin your life worse than being financially irresponsible? Grow up,
folks, we're all in charge of our own destinies.
> because you lose your job and therefore your
> home.
...there are excellent financial and insurance instruments that can prevent loss of
job from being a calamity. Check into them.
> Reducing the burden of caring for the elderly can help people to
> save and therefore buffer themselves against financial problems in the
> future.
...this sounds great, but what does it really mean? How does paying for healthcare
for the elderly in *any* way reduce *any* burden on those paying for it?
Basically, if I parse your sentence properly, you're saying that my FICA
contributions *encourage* me to save, somehow? Who brainwashed you? That doesn't
make sense even on the face of it.
> Reducing infant mortality and providing contraceptives reduces
> the birth rate and therefore population growth.
All for it. Condoms are cheap, $0.25 in the men's room, or free at many
nightclubs. Doesn't take some huge bureaucracy or tax funding to handle that,
unless we have to pay a bunch of social workers to follow people around and help
the poor, ignorant, incapable-of-caring-for-themselves "proletariat" put those
condoms on.
> Once you understand the benefits that basic healthcare has for society
> as a whole (moreso than for just the sum of the people making it up)
> then it becomes easy to see that it should be a Right.
Ooh. Not only a "right" --- rather, a "Right."
Bullshit. I declare shenanigans. If you've got a "right" to healthcare that I pay
for, then I've got a "right" to come and move into your house, live on your sofa,
eat your food, maybe even sleep with your wife. Either makes about the same amount
of sense.
What's so godawful frightening about the idea of paying for one's own healthcare,
or paying for one's own private insurance?
Once you understand that you have to look out for yourself and that government
cannot and should not be a lifelong surrogate parent, it's much easier to have
rational discussions with people.
$0.02,
jb
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