[ale] [OT] for the space geeks on ALE

[Pat Regan]

On Wed, 8 Jun 2011 16:17:35 -0400
Greg Clifton <gccfof5 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Jeff,
> I do agree with you as regards the SS comments. On the rest, if you
> "like the Post Office...." People are people and motivated by the
> same basically the same "greed"  whether it lust for  money
> (business) or just lust for power (govt).  Regardless of the evils of
> corporations/business, the one thing they CANNOT do is take your
> money at the point of a gun which the government does. I'd rather
> take my chances in the free market than in the government controlled
> "single payer" system that we're headed towards. GC

The trouble is that we don't have a free market health care system.
The prices of medical care are set by what insurance companies are
willing to pay.  The insurance companies are also in a better position
to negotiate prices for services than I am.

There seem to be two sections of the health care industry that are
actually a free market, and the prices have been dropping for both
types of service for a very long time.  Cosmetic surgery and corrective
eye surgery.  The prices go down because the doctors are actually
competing with each other for our dollars and customers have been
shopping based on price.

My grandfather started practicing medicine something like 60+ years
ago.  That was before the days when everyone needed to have insurance
to pay for medical care.  The stories I always heard implied that
everyone in the neighborhood got proper care.  They paid what they
could manage, but they weren't turned away.

I'd be all for a free market for health care, like we had 60 years
ago.  I don't know how possible it is to get back to that, though.

Pat