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I am not a crazy anti-healthcare nut as this comment will make me appear, but I think you mean "healthcare is paid for by others/collectively", since it isn't f

I am not a crazy anti-healthcare nut as this comment will make me appear, but I think you mean "healthcare is paid for by others/collectively", since it isn't free to provide services, unless your doctors are working for no money.

citricsquid 13y ago
I think everyone in the world understands free healthcare to mean free at the point of service.
- ryanmolden 13y ago
  You might be surprised, I have talked with people that say 'free' and I say 'you mean paid for collectively' and they say 'no, free' :)
  - pyre 13y ago
    I expect that a conversation with such a person would go like: Person: No, free. You: So how will the doctor get paid? Person: By the government. You: Where does the government get its money? Person: Oh... People usually have the knowledge, they just haven't made the connections.
  - LaGrange 13y ago
    There are 7 billion people on Earth right now. You are going to find some that don't know what the hell "breathing" means if you just try hard enough. Using this to pick apart at the word "everyone" is just as pedantic as picking at the specific definition of "free" in that question. Even more, in most systems I know the amount paid for health insurance is fairly explicit. Where I live you actually get a bill from a non-state company (some things may be subsidized from other taxes, and if you can't afford it you also get a subsidy, though) so no, people don't think it's "really-really" free. It's "people with more money contribute more".
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  Everyone except pedants.
nitrogen 13y ago
But surely there's no reason for a simple ride to an ER to cost $900-$2000, is there? You could hire someone to drive you in a Ferrari for that.
- justin66 13y ago
  The quick response times our ambulances achieve are due to their being strategically placed around a city, manned and ready to go. It works this way whether you're talking about a city-owned ambulance at the fire station or a privately-owned one idling in a parking lot somewhere. In either case, you (or your insurance, or your city, or your state...) are paying for a driver and at least one paramedic to sit around at the ready, not just for the quick trip.
  - jmadsen 13y ago
    I don't think that doesn't make any "economic logic", for lack of being able to remember the correct term. If that were true - if the price was based on the cost - you would have small towns & rural areas where it would be so expensive, no one could use them, and cities where even though there were more ambulances, EMTs, etc, the cost would be spread so thin as to be barely noticeable I don't believe the price is tied so directly to cost of service
    - justin66 13y ago
      It's hard to make out exactly what your point is but you're correct if you're trying to say that the price here is not simply about supply and demand. The costs of ambulances are subsidized in many ways (but they're never "free") and you're also dealing with people who generally don't have the ability to shop around. It's not a "market" item, really, on either side of the transaction. Regarding rural areas and small towns: they often keep costs down by having crappy medical services in general, and slower response times specifically. It's not always that bad, though. If a town isn't sprawled out response times shouldn't suffer so much.
      - jmadsen 13y ago
mikeash 13y ago
Technically, nothing is free. Yet we can still productively use the word.
- ams6110 13y ago
  A thing can be said to be "free" if, at a price of zero, there is sufficient supply to meet demand.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Do you have an example? I'm having a hard time thinking of any.
    - philwelch 13y ago
      Some things have negative prices--you have to pay people to take them away. Stuff like garbage or sewage.
    - philh 13y ago
      Breathable air.
      - precisioncoder 13y ago
        I'm afraid breathable air does cost you the energy required to operate the lungs. This energy is mostly generated from digesting organic matter such as vegetables and meat which can vary in price. Free cannot exist since we live in a universe with entropy. In other words in any given system some energy (cost) is lost.
        boomlinde 13y ago
        He said breathable air, not breathing.
        precisioncoder 13y ago

citricsquid 13y ago

I think everyone in the world understands free healthcare to mean free at the point of service.

ryanmolden 13y ago
You might be surprised, I have talked with people that say 'free' and I say 'you mean paid for collectively' and they say 'no, free' :)
- pyre 13y ago
  I expect that a conversation with such a person would go like: Person: No, free. You: So how will the doctor get paid? Person: By the government. You: Where does the government get its money? Person: Oh... People usually have the knowledge, they just haven't made the connections.
- LaGrange 13y ago
  There are 7 billion people on Earth right now. You are going to find some that don't know what the hell "breathing" means if you just try hard enough. Using this to pick apart at the word "everyone" is just as pedantic as picking at the specific definition of "free" in that question. Even more, in most systems I know the amount paid for health insurance is fairly explicit. Where I live you actually get a bill from a non-state company (some things may be subsidized from other taxes, and if you can't afford it you also get a subsidy, though) so no, people don't think it's "really-really" free. It's "people with more money contribute more".
enraged_camel 13y ago
Everyone except pedants.

nitrogen 13y ago

But surely there's no reason for a simple ride to an ER to cost $900-$2000, is there? You could hire someone to drive you in a Ferrari for that.

justin66 13y ago
The quick response times our ambulances achieve are due to their being strategically placed around a city, manned and ready to go. It works this way whether you're talking about a city-owned ambulance at the fire station or a privately-owned one idling in a parking lot somewhere. In either case, you (or your insurance, or your city, or your state...) are paying for a driver and at least one paramedic to sit around at the ready, not just for the quick trip.
- jmadsen 13y ago
  I don't think that doesn't make any "economic logic", for lack of being able to remember the correct term. If that were true - if the price was based on the cost - you would have small towns & rural areas where it would be so expensive, no one could use them, and cities where even though there were more ambulances, EMTs, etc, the cost would be spread so thin as to be barely noticeable I don't believe the price is tied so directly to cost of service
  - justin66 13y ago
    It's hard to make out exactly what your point is but you're correct if you're trying to say that the price here is not simply about supply and demand. The costs of ambulances are subsidized in many ways (but they're never "free") and you're also dealing with people who generally don't have the ability to shop around. It's not a "market" item, really, on either side of the transaction. Regarding rural areas and small towns: they often keep costs down by having crappy medical services in general, and slower response times specifically. It's not always that bad, though. If a town isn't sprawled out response times shouldn't suffer so much.
    - jmadsen 13y ago

mikeash 13y ago

Technically, nothing is free. Yet we can still productively use the word.

ams6110 13y ago
A thing can be said to be "free" if, at a price of zero, there is sufficient supply to meet demand.
- mikeash 13y ago
  Do you have an example? I'm having a hard time thinking of any.
  - philwelch 13y ago
    Some things have negative prices--you have to pay people to take them away. Stuff like garbage or sewage.
  - philh 13y ago
    Breathable air.
    - precisioncoder 13y ago
      I'm afraid breathable air does cost you the energy required to operate the lungs. This energy is mostly generated from digesting organic matter such as vegetables and meat which can vary in price. Free cannot exist since we live in a universe with entropy. In other words in any given system some energy (cost) is lost.
      - boomlinde 13y ago
        He said breathable air, not breathing.
        precisioncoder 13y ago