Dear readers,
Some are arguing that healthcare is a fundamental human right. Lets grant them the argument. I find it curious that every country I know of, that has socialized healthcare, has an age limit on certain procedures?
If healthcare is a fundamental human right then why does it have an age limit? How can it have an age limit? If the fundamental human right of healthcare has an age limit… what is the age limit of the others? At what age do we loose the rights to, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Is free speech curtailed at some age determined by the government? Can I no longer pray when I reach the age limit?
No one is arguing that anyone should be denied healthcare. What we are arguing is that nothing that requires the intervention of other human beings to provide is a fundamental human right. Free speech does not require direct intervention of another human to happen. No one is coerced into hearing it. If some are interested they listen. No coercion needs to happen. To provide free healthcare others are forced to pay for that healthcare. They are coerced into being participants to the right.
As to the question of healthcare and it’s availability… Veterinary care today has come amazingly far. Cat scans of cats are common. The one thing that stands out between human health care and veterinary care is cost. In veterinary care costs are controlled by market forces. Efficiency is aggressively sought. In Canada, outside the single payer system, there is a thriving market for full body scans. The technicians scan your entire body in the most state of the art machines. The scans are looked at by doctors, or possibly technicians, trained in this field. And skills honed by the same forces that were found in Adam Smith’s pin factory.
If the healthcare industry is broken the fix isn’t to have the people who broke it in the first place take it over. The solution is to find things that work, innovation that improves the processes as well as the metrics. Efficiency that is small business. These attributes are those of the free market not government bureaucracy. If we want to get really affordable healthcare, encourage innovation. Provide extra tax incentives to business to provide health insurance. Encourage new niche markets to form. Allow the people to provide for their fellows… And we will…
