The U.S. Health Care Debate

[Lemur]

Whoa, this is a thread about healthcare, not Iraq, not Bush, not soldiers, except as regards their healthcare. I don't mean to be both a rules geek and a stick-in-the-mud, but the GC-ATPG exchange seems to be wandering far afield.

Just gonna re-state my position:

• The appetite for healthcare is infinite.
• No economy can sustain "full" healthcare for everyone at all stages of their lives.
• Ergo, some sort of rationing is not only inevitable, it's the reality. Everywhere.

So the only real question is "How would you like your triage served, sir?"

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Just gonna re-state my position:

• The appetite for healthcare is infinite.
• No economy can sustain "full" healthcare for everyone at all stages of their lives.
• Ergo, some sort of rationing is not only inevitable, it's the reality. Everywhere.

This is something that concerns me deeply, especially here in Europe. We have all of these fancy healthcare systems set up, but as more and more people become older, and as our population pyramid inverts more and more, we have less workers paying for more people needing the services. These health and welfare systems already cost a fortune, they already consume large portions of our financial resources. Just how are we going to keep paying for them? Will we go into debt? Will we have to cut services? What is the price that I, or more importantly my descendents are going to end up paying for the continued maintenance of such extravagant systems?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Just gonna re-state my position:

• The appetite for healthcare is infinite.
• No economy can sustain "full" healthcare for everyone at all stages of their lives.
• Ergo, some sort of rationing is not only inevitable, it's the reality. Everywhere.

So the only real question is "How would you like your triage served, sir?"

So...

• You agree with the idea of scarcity
• See point one
• Prices are a method of rationing

Excellent! Another free marketer.