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For the majority of human history, health care was done by village shamans etc (that did actually treat most ailments they could) for free. It was part of livi

• tivert 3y ago
  >>> Keeping your people healthy should just be a given. >> For the entirety of human history, up to and including this point, it hasn't been. > For the majority of human history, health care was done by village shamans etc (that did actually treat most ailments they could) for free. Would you be OK with universal shamanistic healthcare? Because I don't think that would count as succeeding at "keeping your people healthy" by any reasonable definition. My strong hunch is that village shamans could successfully treat far, far fewer aliments than you could with OTC medications and first aid supplies. Things start getting expensive once you try to be more effective than that. And the shamans almost certainly weren't doing it "for free," but a village like that almost certainly is primarily a non-market economy, so their compensation could be obscure to modern eyes (e.g. for a more modern example and easy-to-understand example, Jewish priests were compensated by being entitled to a portion of religious sacrifices).
  • aaomidi 3y ago
    I expect that healthcare to be given with the standards of the day universally. If we have resource constraints (not enough doctors, hospitals, medications) then one of our top priorities should be to solve the shortages.