I am not labelling all paid services as luxuries. But some are, and different people will consider different things luxuries. I mean, what is discomfort? (Should seats be leather, say? Should they recline? How far?) How much is choosing a seat worth? Some people really like an aisle, some like a window, some don't care. When you decide that a particular service is
required to be included, you're saying that people that don't want it will have to pay for it anyways. I don't see why that is the default argument that doesn't have to be defended, while not having to pay for something you don't want is the idea that has a high burden of argument.
The heart of the argument made in the article is that somehow, by unbundling services that were bundled, airlines are somehow able to raise prices above what they were otherwise able to do. I don't think that's true at all.
I mean, I sure like a pop and a box of chocolate-covered raisins when I go to the movies. Therefore I demand that all movie tickets include food.
I like to watch streaming videos on my phone. Therefore I demand that all phone plans include unlimited data.
I like big comfortable seats and laptop plugs when I travel on the inter-city train. Therefore I demand that municipal buses include these things.
You see where this goes?
And US healthcare is totally not the same. Firstly, the majority of US healthcare expenditures are tax-funded, about 65%, mostly through Medicare, Medicaid, tax subsidies and other programs. Secondly, it is effectively cartelized by the government, through incentives that make it extremely tax-advantageous to get healthcare through employers, to limits on the training and numbers of doctors that drive up prices, to now, a system of exchanges that require that people purchase insurance from approved insurers at government-set prices. It is so, so incredibly far from "everyone pays for his own healthcare through a system of private insurers".