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Free Market Health Care

Lutherf said:
While old age medical insurance was expensive it was definitely available. That, however, is immaterial as medical CARE was available to everyone who could pay for it.
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Wrong. Insurance companies would not sell policies to people at any price. If they did, the seniors (and their far above average medical bills) would be mixed into the same pool with the younger insured. That would make insurance more expensive for everyone

And, anecdotes aside, it's not easy to pay for a heart attack or stroke, etc when you're on a fixed income.
 
sangha said:
Wrong. Insurance companies would not sell policies to people at any price. If they did, the seniors (and their far above average medical bills) would be mixed into the same pool with the younger insured. That would make insurance more expensive for everyone

And, anecdotes aside, it's not easy to pay for a heart attack or stroke, etc when you're on a fixed income.
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So you're starting your own insurance company? A kinder and gentler insurance company?
 
Lutherf said:
While old age medical insurance was expensive it was definitely available. That, however, is immaterial as medical CARE was available to everyone who could pay for it.

My mother's family ended up in rural upstate New York. One day in what must have been the mid 1930s my uncle wasn't feeling well. Things got bad enough that they sent for the town doctor. The doctor they had used for years had retired but his kid had started practice. The kid, however, no longer made house calls and my uncle was informed that he would have to go to the new hospital. Off they went, aunt, uncle and whoever else was around. They got to the hospital and the young doctor took care of whatever the problem had been. My uncle asked the doctor how much the treatment would cost and the doctor told him "Whatever my father used to charge you will be fine". That evening the young doctor went home with two chickens and a pig.

Medical care was definitely available and in many areas was quite affordable, by local standards. Wealthy consumers of medical care generally paid more for that care and often got better care than the poor did. However, even rural doctors were included in the sharing of medical knowledge and technique. Those without direct access to the newest, best equipped facilities still benefited from the "trickle down" effect of lessons learned on wealthy patients.
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Yeah.. if you want to go back to the technology and treatments of the 1930's... then I suggest you push for a "free market".... if by free market you mean no insurance companies.

IF however, you want to have your life saved when you get in a car wreck.. I suggest you embrace third party payment systems.

This argument is so ironic.

BAsed on free market principles. There would be no incentive to develop technologies that only a few people need.. and that virtually no one could pay for.

The advent of insurance.. particulary medicare.. which paired demand for healthcare... with the ability to pay for it... is what has spurred the greatest boom in medical technology and knowledge.
 
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