Reason.tv on Health Care: Get Some!

As President Barack Obama "aims to take control of health care debate" via his big speech last night, ponder these offerings on the subject from Reason.tv. As the public option goes under the knife and polls keep plummeting, these are nothing less than essential viewing. 

How to Fix America's Health Insurance Crisis: Get Some!

What if Government Ran Health Care?

Would ObamaCare Cover Sticker-Shock Treatment?

Obama to Citizens on Health Care: Send in All Fishy Emails!

 

Reason mag on health care.

Comments

[Tricky Prickears]

Is Obama president, or what? If he wants to get this shit passed, he's going to have to start wielding some power in DC, not on the public airways. Tell all of those "Blue Dogs", that if they don't support his healthcare reform, the DNC will cut the funding for their re-election campaigns.

I'm getting sick of this. Either shit or get off the pot!

[MNG]

Is there a health care crisis in the eyes of libertarians? It seems to me from long time participation on H&R opinion is divided among:

1. There is a crisis, but it is because of the government or government intervention will make it worse
2. Fuck sick people who ain't me (there is a crisis, but not for me, so so what), "teh slavery!"

[MNG]

The desire to reform health care will keep going on in for many people no matter what happens this year because there is the wacky tendency for people to hate to see people needlessly suffer when something could probably be done about it, and concerns over "teh slavery" that afflicts places like Canada (it's like Uncle Tom's Cabin up there I tells ya) just don't seem to quell those feelings...

Of course for libertarians who fall into group 1 above, they have many ready answers to this. It's just none of them will work 🙂

[Art-P.O.G.]

there is the wacky tendency for people to hate to see people needlessly suffer when something could probably be done about it

Why does government have to be the primary/sole source of charity in the world?

[_^___^_]

Either shit or get off the pot!

Because time is running out!
The sky is friggin' falling!
It's now or never!

[Xeones]

It's just none of them will work 🙂

[citation needed] >:|

[ransom147]

oh cripes mng, now i get it.

[mitch]

...there is the wacky tendency for people to hate to see people needlessly suffer when they think something could probably be done about it by somebody else...

Nobody will stand in your way if you want to help somebody. But people get pissed when you try to seize their resources to help some third person in some way that nobody is sure will actually help.

[Walter Permican]

Obama will be unveiling a new slogan in his speech before Congress:

"HMOs and the DMV: Together at Last!"

[tricky p]

Do something, even if it's wrong.

(mobilizing)

[oh no not this again]

I think I'm noticing a theme. Whatever the situation, reason always finds a way to blame it on some mystical deadbeat. Is Phil gram in charge of editorial direction? I know you were all hearting him in the early days of this recession. The video were nick tells people to just buy it then flashes to a party is a piece of filth aimed at the most bitter amongst this community. Those angry collectivists, that's what they are, who need to blame someone weaker than them for the mess this country is in.

[coyote1284]

The problem, and biggest hurdle to reform, is that American healthcare is a business. Your health should not be something others profit from. Health insurance is nothing more than a gamble with the insuror(?) over whether or not you'll need their help paying your hospital bills. Hospitals have become more concerned about their overhead than your health, and still need pharmacutical companies to keep them in the black. IMO, healthcare *should* be a public service. Your health is not a commodity and has no place in a free market.

[Oh no not this again]

Here's another video for ya Nick. These guys think just like you, heck you've been tacitly supporting them the last few weeks. NO anger here, just concerned americans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkrW22u7SwU&feature=channel_page

[Tricky Prickears]

Because time is running out!
The sky is friggin' falling!
It's now or never!

Please. We've been talking about this on and off since fucking Truman. We all know what needs to be done. I don't like it, you don't like, nobody likes it, but its going to have to be done. So just fucking do it already and get it over with. Put down the box of Band-Aides, and just rip it out.

[J.]

"Please. We've been talking about this on and off since fucking Truman. We all know what needs to be done. I don't like it, you don't like, nobody likes it, but its going to have to be done. So just fucking do it already and get it over with. Put down the box of Band-Aides, and just rip it out."

And the clusterfucked boondoggle they came up with not long after was Medicare. That worked out well, so let's do more of the same!

[R C Dean]

Your health should not be something others profit from.

Is there any way this approach doesn't lead to fully nationalized health care, with every provider, supplier,drug company, hell, drug store, etc. a department of the government?

[Urkobold?]

FREE ACCESS TO BEAUTIFUL, STACKED-LIKE-A-BRICK-HOUSE PROSTITUTES IS A RIGHT THAT ALL AMERICANS HAVE. OH, YEAH, YOU LIBERTARIANS DON'T CARE ABOUT THE POOR MAN, FORCED TO SLEEP WITH TRAILER TRASH--OR WORSE--OR RESORTING TO USING ADVERTISEMENTS IN READER'S DIGEST TO BARELY STIMULATE HIS MASTURBATORY FANTASIES.

YOU PEOPLE SICKEN THE URKOBOLD WITH YOUR WORSHIP OF THE BOTTOM LINE.

[food]

Food shouldn't be for dirty profit either right? Isn't it far more important than a doctors visit? You practically need that shit daily!

[Urkoboob?]

IS ANYONE TIRED OF ME YET?!

[Urkobold™]

WHAT, YOU OPPOSE UNIVERSAL RACKCESS? WHAT KIND OF COLD-HEARTED BEAST ARE YOU?

[Jeffersonian]

The problem, and biggest hurdle to reform, is that American healthcare is a business. Your health should not be something others profit from.

Oh, well, that's easy. Let's just pass a law preventing anyone in the health care field from drawing a salary. If it's wrong to profit from providing care, if it should be from the goodness of others' hearts, we can do no less.

[Fen]

"Your health should not be something others profit from."

So now you expect me to treat you for free? I have a family to feed too. Parasite.

[Doustoi]

We - you and I - have a moral obligation to help those who cannot help themselves. This obligation IS NOT assignable or transferable to a government acting on behalf of all of its citizens. When the government attempts to take over my moral obligation, it robs me of my free will to choose to act, or to not act, on this moral charge. Right after "life" and right before "pursuit of happiness", that's where you will find the inalienable right that Obama is attempting to deny me.

[Dragonlady]

If, as our President said last night, his "health care" bill (what bill?) can be paid for by eliminating the waste and fraud of the current system (like Medicare), why not eliminate the waste and fraud now? Mr. Obama - show us that you can eliminate waste in fraud in current Federal government run health care programs (Medicare, Medicade, S chip, VA, etc.) and save money doing so. Do it successfully for one year - then we'll talk.

[Lenoxus]

One big difference between food and healthcare is that a person's need for food will (usually) not suddenly and unexpectedly increase in the same way diseases and injuries do for health. If health came down to nothing more than consuming a balance among a variety of "health-causing" products (or sticking with one in a way that costs the same from year to year, as with housing) a completely private system would make perfect sense.

However, this is an area where life gives us fundamentally unequal hands, some more deadly than others. I believe it becomes our obligation to correct that, even if it means "stealing from the healthy". A private medical system is as impractical and almost as deadly as a private defense system could be. (Why should I pay for some San Fransican to not get blown up in a terror attack?)

To me, the real question is, why does European healthcare work? Or is Europe just living in a fantasyland that it will pay for sooner or later, and we're being the practical ones for rationing based on ability to pay?

[doustoi]

Lenoxus - the obligation we have is to help those less fortunate, not correct the fundamental unfairness and randomness of human existence. And as stated above, our personal moral obligation is not transferable or assignable to a government. Stealing from anyone, no matter how many people agree to it, is always wrong, no matter what the intended outcome.

And the question is not why does European healthcare work. The question is: why would we want to ruin our economy like the teetering economic backwaters of the 21st century. Of all the mysteries of life, this is surely the greatest: what is with the overt Eurocentrism of the liberals?

[doustoi]

And there is no "rationing" if there is as much healthcare as you want as long as you can pay for it. Your choice of words is the tipoff to your socialist ethos.

[Lenoxus]

doustoi:

Stealing from anyone, no matter how many people agree to it, is always wrong, no matter what the intended outcome.

Obviously, if this is a universal, it applies to all government actions, including defense and police. As I said before, why should I pay for some San Franciscans to not get blown up?

why would we want to ruin our economy like the teetering economic backwaters of the 21st century.

So Europe is on the verge of collapse; fair enough.

And there is no "rationing" if there is as much healthcare as you want as long as you can pay for it.

Well, there are two ways I could interpret this. One is to say that that means that there's always rationing, because a person could always decide they "want" more healthcare than is physically possible to provide them. The other is to say that there is never rationing in a country a person can legally travel from to find the care they desire; even all those European countries have a "second tier" in this form.

Ah, but if the USA went UHC, perhaps all the super-expensive care would gradually disappear from the Earth? Perhaps. I somehow doubt it.