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How would you then hedge against unexpected high-cost procedures? Your assumption is that ridding the world of insurance would magically, dramatically lower the

How would you then hedge against unexpected high-cost procedures? Your assumption is that ridding the world of insurance would magically, dramatically lower the cost of every drug and procedure on the market. Not everyone gets cancer, the medical insurance profit model is predicated on a bet that most people won't. The more people in the coverage pool, the less likely you will be paying out for every single person. Socialized care is just the expansion of that model to encompass the entire country's citizen population. What would have been privately-captured profit from people that were healthy members of the pool can instead be used to reduce the premiums paid by all members of the pool.

eaandkw 9y ago
I am arguing from the point of view that at current prices very few if anyone would be able to afford a high-cost procedure. When that happens prices would come down. This is partly why a bottle of snake venom antidote in Mexico can cost $100 but in the U.S. costs $10,000. Another example is eye surgery. Originally the procedure was expensive but now it is more affordable because it is not covered by insurance. Comparatively, plastic surgery is relatively affordable because it is not normally covered by insurance. Reducing or eliminating health insurance would also eliminate a lot of the medical administrators that provide zero care but due incur a cost due to their salaries. As far as getting rid of the profit motivation but capturing the profits and giving it to those without health insurance I believe that you would also eliminate any reason to innovate and create new drugs. I will admit that if you got rid of health insurance tomorrow that there would be a lot of short term pain. But I also believe that in the long run people would be better off because they would be able to afford there healthcare. Using a different example look at the cost of college. I believe that we could fix that problem one of two ways. The first way would be to get rid of government loans and grants. The other way would be to allow people to file bankrupcy for student loans. The first way would attack the problem by getting rid of easy money. Because easy money makes things expensive. The second way could work by shifting the risks of the loans from the student to the banks. The problem with this solution would probably make it harder to pay for degrees that don't pay well. To summarize my arguments, cheap money makes things expensive and is destroying almost everything is this country. Edit: added the college example.

eaandkw 9y ago

I am arguing from the point of view that at current prices very few if anyone would be able to afford a high-cost procedure. When that happens prices would come down. This is partly why a bottle of snake venom antidote in Mexico can cost $100 but in the U.S. costs $10,000. Another example is eye surgery. Originally the procedure was expensive but now it is more affordable because it is not covered by insurance. Comparatively, plastic surgery is relatively affordable because it is not normally covered by insurance. Reducing or eliminating health insurance would also eliminate a lot of the medical administrators that provide zero care but due incur a cost due to their salaries. As far as getting rid of the profit motivation but capturing the profits and giving it to those without health insurance I believe that you would also eliminate any reason to innovate and create new drugs. I will admit that if you got rid of health insurance tomorrow that there would be a lot of short term pain. But I also believe that in the long run people would be better off because they would be able to afford there healthcare. Using a different example look at the cost of college. I believe that we could fix that problem one of two ways. The first way would be to get rid of government loans and grants. The other way would be to allow people to file bankrupcy for student loans. The first way would attack the problem by getting rid of easy money. Because easy money makes things expensive. The second way could work by shifting the risks of the loans from the student to the banks. The problem with this solution would probably make it harder to pay for degrees that don't pay well. To summarize my arguments, cheap money makes things expensive and is destroying almost everything is this country. Edit: added the college example.