The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort. -- Robert A. Heinlein
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Location
Somewhere in the crusty outer layer of small towns surrounding the warm creamy center that is Oklahoma City.
Reason posted this sweet video that covers just a facet of what's wrong with human healthcare... by comparing it to pet healthcare. Lots of good food for thought, as long as you're not a knee-jerk hater of the free market.
The blurb:
When it comes to health care, who gets treated better -- man or man's best friend?
Of course, it's hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison when you're comparing four-legged patients to people, and there are many ways in which human care tops pet care.
But pet owners told Reason.tv there are some ways where it would be a step up to be treated like a dog.
There's a lot of other things that aren't covered... like how easy and relatively cheap it is to get prescription meds for your dog. Or how the doctor and pet owner are partners in the dog's care, rather than being in an unbalanced relationship where one is expected to be stupid and uninformed while the other dictates treatments to them. Or how the government paternalism is by comparison largely absent from the decision-making process.
There is no such thing as zero-cost regulation. Every regulation adds to the cost, either directly or by reducing quality/availability, and this cost must be paid by someone. Economics tells us that the people who will pay the most are likely to be those who are least able to afford it. So while the Democrats and Republicans are working up their new proposals for yet another round of healthcare "reform", ask yourself this: how many regulations are they eliminating vs. how many are they creating? That will tell you whether prices will be going up or down.