Is Josh Barro
health care is 1/6 of our economy, but nobody wants to spend 1/6 of their income on it.
That is an even pithier version of my one-liner, which is that as individuals we all want unlimited access to medical services without having to pay for them, but collectively that is not sustainable.
If healthcare is 1/6 of our economy, 1/6 of our society and anyone else connected to that 1/6 will never tolerate it shrinking.
IMHO, It doesn’t need to shrink, it needs to shift. I asked my doctor who was my spouse’s family doctor and I was new to at the time about nutrition. He said “don’t worry about that, I have never seen a single person with a nutrient deficiency.” Not long later he prescribed my Father-in-Law vitamin D. I asked him about cancer and said don’t worry about it. I stopped asking, but I don’t expect a refund if I get cancer or have a nutrient deficiency.
Doctors are just as lazy as we let them be
PJ O’Rourke said something like, “We have a constitutional right to get someone else to pay when we want to go to the doctor.”
The worst part of life is overhearing a civilian talk about their insurance.
But on the other hand, every time someone says “there is no way Joe six pack can deal with the complexity of healthcare” I think about how people love talking about their personal problems from a zillion different angles to figure it out.
I really want free government so all politicians should work for free.
Why isn’t there a functioning Healthcare loan market?
Few think anyone should die from a treatable condition for lack of money. That’s what it means to be a necessity rather than a luxury. It is the division between necessity and luxury that is difficult, and necessity needs some value placed on it to make it essential, not just desired. Those are social judgments.
So, I need some drugs that I know I need. I am required to get assessed for about $600, then the drugs and re-assessments, prescriptions, etc. How much will it cost to get a tiny little chemical I know I need? Why does it cost this much?
This is the kind of ____ we are actually talking about. Emergency services are trivial, and hopeless cancer treatments are irrelevant in that everyone knows they should not be allowed to bankrupt everyone.
It is the cost of developing and learning what works on the expectation that eventually the cost becomes minor. Enough people want to live forever to make this politically viable.