Soleron said:
1. Millions more people recieve preventative treatment, and full and timely care for serious conditions 2. These people are then able to go to work more fully and frequently 3. The increased tax revenue, decreased unemployment/disability/deprivation payments and reduced cost of repeat emergency healthcare offsets any additional expense Please understand that this kind of welfare makes complete economic sense. |
You'd be surprised actually.
The "medical care makes money" arguement actually mostly comes from just projections of lost hours etc.
It doesn't look at things from a grim actuarial point of view...
1. People are actually pretty resilient. Prevenative care and serious conditions tend to mostly just extend the backend of someones life. Which coincidentally is when people are almost universally living off social security and medicaid. Which people are getting on average far more out of then they put in while working.
2. Poor people pretty much have to go to work no matter what shit is happening to them anyway, they can't afford not to. Middle class people who don't go to the doctor now and miss work because of it still will because it isn't a problem of lack of access but a lack of willingness to go. So the projections of increased hours are overexagerated by quite a bit.
3. Not really... the health costs of the unhealthy actually cost less then the healthy, so all your really hanging your hat on is the phantom increased productivity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05iht-obese.1.9748884.html?_r=2
Which are overestimated for the reasons above, and further overestimated by the fact that nowhere in the world is really at "full employment" meaning that when those who die, die. There are others just waiting to take over for them at their jobs.
Who previously were providing nothing to the economy, but actually racking up health costs.
If we're talking benefit to the government, it's generally best for people to die off once they hit retirement age, ala Logan's run. Perhaps even a bit sooner so as to free up more spaces for young people.
It's a ghoulish way to look at it. But it's not untrue.
