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Please explain how the free market will pay for a cancer treatment to a poor person.

bluGill 7y ago
Please explain how socialized will pay for it. Or more accurately, why. Treatment for some things is expensive, eventually we have to say that some treatment isn't worth it. Cancer can get expensive, and some treatments cost a lot of money while only adding a few weeks to lifespan. Why should those be paid for? Note that adding a few weeks is an average measure - some people die of treatment, some get "cured" and live for a few years. Now turn the table, you are the one with cancer. There is an expensive treatment that might or might not work, but it is the only hope left. How much is this wroth to you?
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  > Please explain how socialized will pay for it. With money. It's like insurance, except paid through an extra tax. > Or more accurately, why. I mean, are you really asking why someone sees human life to be roughly of equal value, regardless of said human's wealth? But let's look at it differently: I don't think public healthcare precludes people from access to private treatments and additional private medical insurance. Public healthcare is just another baseline service offered by the government, which happens to remove the need for most of the people to seek that service in private sector. Like many other government services, you could view it as a formalization of helping others in need. > There is an expensive treatment that might or might not work, but it is the only hope left. How much is this wroth to you? Obviously, all the wealth I can command at the moment - meaning what I have, + what debt I can get into. Which is precisely why healthcare needs to be regulated, and why public healthcare is useful - private providers know that true demand price for many medical issues is essentially "all that you have", and they will try to get all that money. Inserting the government between the healthcare provider and the patient means the provider doesn't get to "negotiate" with an individual under duress.
merpnderp 7y ago
Same way it pays for car wrecks, house fires, ships sinking, satellites lost, etc etc. The world is awash with examples of the free market correctly pricing insurance. Give people cash vouchers for insurance, ramp up the tax rate so that the rich have to pay it and then some back. Let people buy their own insurance. Do some government re-insuring for companies that get hammered with too many sick people or go under. Done.
- matchbok 7y ago
  So, not a free market. Ok!
marknutter 7y ago
By coming up with a cheap and effective cure for cancer.
- arcticbull 7y ago
  No, see you misunderstand the free market. Their goal isn’t to make the cheapest anything, their goal is to maximize shareholder value. And when the conversation is framed “pay up or die” well the amount people are willing to pay goes up. Explain to me if the free market objective is to make the cheapest goods possible why the iPhone exists and has a 60% profit margin?
HBKXNCUO 7y ago
Who is suggesting the free market will always provide everyone with all of the health care they need?

Please explain how socialized will pay for it. Or more accurately, why. Treatment for some things is expensive, eventually we have to say that some treatment isn't worth it. Cancer can get expensive, and some treatments cost a lot of money while only adding a few weeks to lifespan. Why should those be paid for? Note that adding a few weeks is an average measure - some people die of treatment, some get "cured" and live for a few years. Now turn the table, you are the one with cancer. There is an expensive treatment that might or might not work, but it is the only hope left. How much is this wroth to you?

TeMPOraL 7y ago
> Please explain how socialized will pay for it. With money. It's like insurance, except paid through an extra tax. > Or more accurately, why. I mean, are you really asking why someone sees human life to be roughly of equal value, regardless of said human's wealth? But let's look at it differently: I don't think public healthcare precludes people from access to private treatments and additional private medical insurance. Public healthcare is just another baseline service offered by the government, which happens to remove the need for most of the people to seek that service in private sector. Like many other government services, you could view it as a formalization of helping others in need. > There is an expensive treatment that might or might not work, but it is the only hope left. How much is this wroth to you? Obviously, all the wealth I can command at the moment - meaning what I have, + what debt I can get into. Which is precisely why healthcare needs to be regulated, and why public healthcare is useful - private providers know that true demand price for many medical issues is essentially "all that you have", and they will try to get all that money. Inserting the government between the healthcare provider and the patient means the provider doesn't get to "negotiate" with an individual under duress.

merpnderp 7y ago

Same way it pays for car wrecks, house fires, ships sinking, satellites lost, etc etc. The world is awash with examples of the free market correctly pricing insurance. Give people cash vouchers for insurance, ramp up the tax rate so that the rich have to pay it and then some back. Let people buy their own insurance. Do some government re-insuring for companies that get hammered with too many sick people or go under. Done.

matchbok 7y ago
So, not a free market. Ok!

marknutter 7y ago

By coming up with a cheap and effective cure for cancer.

arcticbull 7y ago
No, see you misunderstand the free market. Their goal isn’t to make the cheapest anything, their goal is to maximize shareholder value. And when the conversation is framed “pay up or die” well the amount people are willing to pay goes up. Explain to me if the free market objective is to make the cheapest goods possible why the iPhone exists and has a 60% profit margin?

HBKXNCUO 7y ago

Who is suggesting the free market will always provide everyone with all of the health care they need?