MACS wrote:https://www.prageru.com/courses/economics/government-cant-fix-healthcare
The Senator from Ohio makes some valid points. Please ignore the source for a minute, and listen to what he says. Then, if you can... refute it. The message... not the messenger.
Dammit MACS. You really need to stop watching that sh#t... it'll rot your brain. I think that stuff actually inhibits a person's ability to critically think.
Problem 1 - "Why is the government so bad at healthcare?". The entire video... from the beginning starts with this as some sort of assumed truth. But does not prove it.
Their statements about it's access/cost/waste etc make assumptions that are not proven. With the amount spent by the government, can you prove that there are ways to provide more coverage, more access etc? That isn't proven.
They beg the question that government healthcare is bad, and then wedge an explanation into it about it being a 3rd party payer. The video is set up to phrase the argument around the "3rd party payer" while not making you look at the first assumption. "Oh! you can't argue it isn't a 3rd party payer!!!". It's dumb.
Then we get to the more interesting issue around health care and health insurance. The video assumes purchase of healthcare is as simple as buying a tv. That's dumb. It simply isn't. There are enormously important factors which differentiate health insurance purchases.
1 - People are optimists. There are studies done which show people have an irrational optimism about their own "odds" when looking at things like risky behavior. This would clearly impact their healthcare purchases. This in itself wouldn't be a problem, but there's a second issue with healthcare
2 - Doctors. People get fixed up, treated, medicated, whatever. Drs have been doing this since Hippocrates (I believe a sliding cost structure was actually built into Dr's books at that time). You're sick and can't afford treatment because you bought a cut-rate insurance plan? No problem, we'll treat you and charge $50 for a tongue depressor when MACS comes in to get his treatment.
3 - Bankruptcy.. Guess what happens when someone gets treated and can't pay? Yeah. They declare bankruptcy and don't pay.
Combine those issues and you simply cannot expect the free market to operate properly in this situation. People are unfortunately not willing to live (or not live) with their poor decisions. If you could show me a world where people only went and received medical treatments which they either insured themselves for, or have the income to afford... well then I would agree with your little prager video. But the real world doesn't operate like that.
So... is the solution Obamacare? No. I think Obamacare is stupid, as once you've gone and mandated everyone be insured, you sort of remove the entire point of "insurance".... the government has ensured everyone will get treated for certain medical activities, why would you add a layer of fake insurance in between, that just adds costs. I've always felt the solution was to let people die in the streets. But that seems to be unpopular.
I don't know what a popular and smart solution would be. But I know that thinking the problem can be solved in a 3 minute video is bad.
