| richardhutnik said: In the discussion of what the government should or shouldn't do, medical coverage is said to not be a necessity. If it isn't a necessity, what is it? |
It's one of many ways to pay the costs of the necessity - medicine. As with every other necessity (food, shelter, etc) there is cost involved. It just so happens that the existence of insurance and its collaboration with legislation, acts as a deviant monopoly on the medium through which payment for the necessity (healthcare) is made. This allowed doctors to name the price for the service, and to provide UNnecessary treatments and diagnoses in order to get money from the insurance company. In response, insurance companies limited the coverage to just the necessities, and refused to pay anything the doctor wished to be performed. This in turn, inflates the cost of healthcare, and those who do not want health insurance (and wish to pay with cash) are coerced to get health insurance to act as a reasonable payment for the necessity -- healthcare. What Cato is likely arguing, is for a system where insurance is not the primary means to purchase healthcare (much like we don't have food insurance and we use loans and morgages to obtain living property.) Cato wants all of healthcare to be like eyecare, where pricing is subjected to market competition, and consequently doctors and insurance companies can't inflate costs for the various reasons they do. Notice how quickly lasik surgery falls, and how consistenly cheap contact lenses are regardless of whether or not you buy them at walmart or your optrician's office. That's because the market determines pricing and demand, not the insurance industry nor the doctor. Ultimately, Cato would argue that insurance would not exist as a monopoly on the means of payment if government didn't create laws which allows this, and rather than giving government more control we should take away what control is already there, thereby introducing a free market, and making healthcare (a necessity) as affordable as shelter and food.
Basically it's an argument that insurance is not a necessity, while healthcare is.
