Asinine Notion Will Not Go Away
The idiocy that healthcare should be a human right continues to infect thinking and thus our policy debates. So, I have to go back to the archives to reprise an oldie but a goodie (that I am sure will attract the ire of those who got their triple bypasses for $500 and thinks we all, or at least most of us, so be so treated). So let's go back and review some fundamentals.
The Most Assinine Platitude in America Today
And there are all alot of them, but here it is:"People have a right to affordable healthcare."Let's examine. What exactly is "healthcare"? I will start with the simplest input. It is the knowledge and experience of healthcare professionals - doctors, nurses, EMT technicians, etc. Where does this knowledge come from? Schooling. Lots of very expensive schooling. Granted medical school students are readily financed, but the ultimate financial obligation rests with them, they have invested in ("bought") the intellectual capital of a medical education. It also comes from rigorous on the job training. Internships are brutally intense and pay very little, so again there is a big personal investment in the hands-on training required to provide "healthcare." Then there are intangible, yet important, aspects of "healthcare" like a doctor's bedside manner, for lack of a better term. This is essentially a doctor's interpersonal skills, communication ability and so on, all things that are valuable and obtainable at cost as well (granted, to some it comes naturally, but mostly this too is acquired at a real cost). All of this is bought and paid for, it someone's property. Why do I have a right to any of this? Do I have a right to the benefits of an electrical engineer's training, in the form of subsidized consumer electronics, at below market value? How about a lawyer's advice or financial planner's expertise? No, I have to pay the going rate for these things. Why is a doctor's bought-and-sweated-for knowledge and experience mine to have by rights at anything less than the going rate?
You can extend the analysis to medical equipment - ultrasound imagers, MRIs, blood analyzers, etc. Someone invents these things and someone has to build them, from raw materials, in a factory where workers are paid and electrical bills are incurred, etc. Do I have a special right to the use of such equipment at a special rate that is deemed to be "affordable" yet may not cover the input resources?
Hospitals too. A building of steel and concrete, built on somebody's land, by a construction crew...you get the point.
How did we ever get to the point where we feel that the real cost of all of these inputs (education, land, labor, invention) must be ignored? We blithely bandy about the word "healthcare" with all of its connotations of life and the individual and we think nothing of advocating stealing what is somebody else's property, which is exactly what we do when we invoke the need for "healthcare" at anything less than the full market value of all that it takes to provide it?
And this is not to even contemplate the variations in quality of "healthcare." What should be affordable? A John Hopkins-educated doctor? A Central State-educated doctor? A 2006 model MRI or a 2002 model? But that is another post.So there it is, in all its idiotic glory, the dumbest platitude in policy discussions today. Say it with gusto and look completely foolish.
The Most Assinine Platitude in America Today
And there are all alot of them, but here it is:"People have a right to affordable healthcare."Let's examine. What exactly is "healthcare"? I will start with the simplest input. It is the knowledge and experience of healthcare professionals - doctors, nurses, EMT technicians, etc. Where does this knowledge come from? Schooling. Lots of very expensive schooling. Granted medical school students are readily financed, but the ultimate financial obligation rests with them, they have invested in ("bought") the intellectual capital of a medical education. It also comes from rigorous on the job training. Internships are brutally intense and pay very little, so again there is a big personal investment in the hands-on training required to provide "healthcare." Then there are intangible, yet important, aspects of "healthcare" like a doctor's bedside manner, for lack of a better term. This is essentially a doctor's interpersonal skills, communication ability and so on, all things that are valuable and obtainable at cost as well (granted, to some it comes naturally, but mostly this too is acquired at a real cost). All of this is bought and paid for, it someone's property. Why do I have a right to any of this? Do I have a right to the benefits of an electrical engineer's training, in the form of subsidized consumer electronics, at below market value? How about a lawyer's advice or financial planner's expertise? No, I have to pay the going rate for these things. Why is a doctor's bought-and-sweated-for knowledge and experience mine to have by rights at anything less than the going rate?
You can extend the analysis to medical equipment - ultrasound imagers, MRIs, blood analyzers, etc. Someone invents these things and someone has to build them, from raw materials, in a factory where workers are paid and electrical bills are incurred, etc. Do I have a special right to the use of such equipment at a special rate that is deemed to be "affordable" yet may not cover the input resources?
Hospitals too. A building of steel and concrete, built on somebody's land, by a construction crew...you get the point.
How did we ever get to the point where we feel that the real cost of all of these inputs (education, land, labor, invention) must be ignored? We blithely bandy about the word "healthcare" with all of its connotations of life and the individual and we think nothing of advocating stealing what is somebody else's property, which is exactly what we do when we invoke the need for "healthcare" at anything less than the full market value of all that it takes to provide it?
And this is not to even contemplate the variations in quality of "healthcare." What should be affordable? A John Hopkins-educated doctor? A Central State-educated doctor? A 2006 model MRI or a 2002 model? But that is another post.So there it is, in all its idiotic glory, the dumbest platitude in policy discussions today. Say it with gusto and look completely foolish.
posted by Donny Baseball at 9:21 AM
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