I’ve been involved lately in some pretty heated discussions with my brother (who’s quite liberal) about health care.
I know this information may be found somewhere else in this forum but I was not able to find it. So help me if you can!
We’re Canadians. We were discussion health care and I was telling him why “universal health care” and why I believe there shouldn’t be any form of compulsory “free” health care. I’ve felt that way all my life even before discovering Objectivism, although for different reasons at the time.
Here are some questions:
1) Look at what’s happening in the US. Lots of people cannot afford their own health insurance and when they do, they are rarely able to get the treatment they paid for. Insurance companies are trying to avoid paying for the right treatment, it’s a big mess, etc… therefore a free market system of health care (fully private) cannot work.
MY ANSWER: I’m not fully aware of how things work in the US. But in principles there shouldn’t be any form of compulsory universal health care. I am not responsible for paying for everyone else, especially by force (through taxes). Our current system leads to lots of abuse anyway, because everyone is hoping to take advantage of it, going to the doctor for every cough. I believe everyone is responsible for their own lives. If the insurance-based US system doesn’t work, it seems to me that the system may be at fault — not the principle behind it. Any comments? I lack information about why the US system is not “working”. I have not watched the movie “Sicko” and don’t intend to…
2) What will you do with people who just can’t afford to pay health insurance? Will you just say “too bad, but you’ll have to die.”
MY ANSWER: In a free society nothing will prevent you from helping them. Private charities can be used to help the very poor and unfortunate. The only difference is that it’s done voluntarily, not by force.
3) Such a charity/voluntary system cannot work. Nobody would pay for it if they weren’t forced to.
MY ANSWER: Human nature is naturally generous, and it doesn’t have to be inforced by law. If you think that men are “wolves to men” then the fundamental view is that we’re essentially evil and we need a government to control us. I don’t believe that. People would give voluntarily to help the unfortunate, especially if they were allowed to keep the 50% that the government currently steals from them every year through taxes.
Any comments would be appreciated, especially to understand the US system and how to explain its problems and how these problems could be solved in a free society.