re: #292 jamesfirecat

The problem is that helathcare is a unique good with no alternative, besides death.

If the price of grain gets too high you can buy fruits or meat instead.

Even with the price of gas a person has other alternatives in public transportation/buy a bike/walk not necessarily great alternatives but you do have alternatives that will get you where you need to be and its up to each person to work out their own time traveled to money saved equation.

Helathcare isn’t like that.

If you compromise your healthcare either by not buying insurance since you figure you won’t need it, or skimping on how frequently you got to the doctor since you’re afraid of how much it will cost, then you may compromise your health and your lifespan and make what comes next all the more costly.

Heathcare should be a public utility like water or electricity, somethings are too important for the free market…

Additionally, the idea of health care as a commodity subject to normal price negotiation (like a car) overlooks the fact that most of the time, when you need it, you REALLY need it, and aren’t in an appropriate frame of mind to dicker over price. It is a cliche based on truth that when a loved one’s life is in jeopardy, you are not interested in haggling with the man you are counting on to effect a cure.