If health care was free, a problem arises. Everyone will think they're entitled to the best doctor. Who gets the best doctor?
Under a market system, the best doctor goes to the patient willing to pay the most.
Under a market system, the best doctor goes to the patient willing to pay the most.
Then there'll be a non-monetary "currency" of favors, who you know, black market, strings, etc. Such systems inevitably appear in any system of "free" scarce goods.
https://ourfuture.org/20080204/mythbusting-canadian-health-c...
When the good doctors are in demand, and the not-so-good ones are not, how is the allocation done?
In this case the alternatives being the usual power networks of the socialist states: friends and relatives in government and administration. Who you know becomes more important than what you know. Who you do becomes more important than what you do. A small favor done once gets returned. Informal networks of favors, relations and power turn rapidly into an impenetrable mafia.
Imagine your DMV visits applied to life-and-death situations. And it's not only doctors. It's also access to latest medicine, newest medical devices, best hospital beds and sections and especially doctor attention.
Source: I lived in these god-forsaken systems, unlike most of the down voters here...
I don't have a lot of trouble at the DMV; maybe we could use an example where I've consistently had terrible experiences, like UPS?
Kinda funny, but my DMV visits have been extremely smooth. If you get there with everything they ask for (you did read the FAQ, didn't you?), there's no reason why you can't have a similar experience.
Now my experiences trying to get a doctors appointment otoh...
Oversimplifying here, but how about setting a base line for free health care. And then if someone wants to get the 'best' doctor they can pay extra?
What if somebody could pay extra to have the best firemen, or the best police?
WalterBright has posed a real problem here, but I honestly think that the solution is just that patients pick their doctors, and if they can't get the doctor they want, they can get on a waiting list for that doctor while seeing another. Additionally, that waiting list would not involve any administrator latitude or patronage, just list seniority.
It's similar to the inherent misallocations of rationing - goods & services are not allocated to where they are most needed.
I asked that question of a Canadian doctor further in this thread.
I grew up in the GDR (East Germany) for the first 17 years of my life. While I turned out well, I had years and years of close contact with a large variety of doctors, for my eyes, sleep EEG, LOTS of small problems. I was a regular visitor of a pretty sizable variety of doctors in various places, not just the hometown.
The fears expressed hear from Americans about that kind of health care, to me, are simply ridiculous. The system worked darn well. I got soooo much, and I wasn't even all that sick, and that in a really poor country (compared to Wet Germany).
By the way, we did have a "top layer" of doctors (in East Germany) where you needed more (don't know if it was money or favors or if they selected you), who were far better than the normal ones. Still, nothing any more outrageous than now - the best are few, everywhere. Getting to them wasn't a matter of being rich though (I know because I got to see one or two of such top doctors).
Interestingly, a friend of mine found that getting the "top doctors" even now does not have to be a question of money. His wife got cancer and the standard treatment would have given her 6 months. He had money and brain, he checked the literature and did his research to find the best doctors relevant for his wife's case - and all it needed to get them to treat his wife was a few phone calls. Not a single additional Euro was spent, they didn't want any. They were cancer researchers at German university clinics, but he also checked with experts in the US. the experimental treatments she got and that gave her a few more years (instead of 6 months) were all paid for by the "Krankenkasse" (the common public insurance vs. private insurance, which exists too). They paid the huge sums without question but refused paying tiny amounts for small stuff...
They don't? How many patients in a "free" health care system ever ask what the cost is for any of the options?
If coach / first class were offered to you, free of charge, which would you pick?
Is it a coincidence that electric cars are suddenly taking off in the UK when their TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) dropped below that of gas cars?
Building a mass market system that relies on the bulk of people behaving altruistically is not likely to work.
The alternative mechanism amounts to "the best doctor goes to the person who has the most connections and somehow subjugated the most people." That's why elected officials in Congress get to the front of the line.
There are more doctors than members of congress, so it's a global improvement on the status quo, unless doctors not treating Congress critters just sit around twiddling their thumbs.
What is the "status quo" in this comment?
The problem is "the best doctor" is essentially a lie. Modern medicine is mostly a huge fraud. Non of this hi tech crap even works when measured on the basis of lifespan.
Disease is overwhelmingly rooted in nutrition and lifestyle. This idea that doctors and their treatments matter is a big lie.
The USA blows a fifth of GDP on health care and it is obviously completely useless. Americans in practice live no longer than Mexicans or Cubans, who spend a tiny sum in comparison.
The most immediate political problem we face is starving the American medical racket out of existence. These crooks are bankrupting the country. The hospitals and doctors and "researchers" and pharma companies must be cut down to size. Starve them of a cent of federal revenue. Or prosecute them for their pervasive anti-trust violations. I don't care. Crushing the medical complex by any means available is literally the most important problem facing America. These crooks are literally stealing over a thousand dollars from every American household every month. It's unbelievable.