General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Health Secretary Says States Should Only Require Vaccines If They Feel Like It
By Eric Levitz
March 16, 2017
10:16 a.m.
The realities of public health, much like those of climate change, bedevil American conservatism.
It does this in a few different ways. One is that the logic of markets is ill-suited to the provision of health care. Medical treatment is not an ordinary good. People dont ever feel no need to buy new furniture one minute then start coughing blood, and suddenly need $500,000 worth of couches to stave off death, the next. Nor is anyone born with a genetic condition that requires her to buy two iPhones a month to stay alive. But many people do find themselves in similar positions with regard to health care.
If our society were willing to let all its least fortunate, non-millionaires die of easily treatable illnesses, then perhaps our health-care system could be reconciled with Ayn Rands ideal of individualism. But it isnt. Most Americans dont want to live in a country where ambulance drivers shake down severely ill people for cash before taking them to the hospital. Nor do they want to live in a place where poor kids with diabetes are left to die from hyperglycemia.
And if youre not willing to do that, youre going to have to accept a little socialism. The rich and healthy are going to have to subsidize the poor and sick, whether we do this formally, through public policy, or not: When an uninsured person wracks up emergency-room bills she cant pay, that cost gets socialized through higher prices.
The incompatibility of American conservatism and human biology is even more obvious when one considers the existence of infectious diseases. If your neighbor cant afford Netflix and falls behind on House of Cards, that wont threaten your childs life. But if he cant afford or isnt willing to vaccinate his kids, that will.
more
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/price-says-states-should-decide-on-vaccines.html
yardwork
(61,538 posts)Girard442
(6,065 posts)A true libertarian paradise.
yardwork
(61,538 posts)get the red out
(13,460 posts)His budget proposals, gutting the EPA, this, just a multitude of shit Trump is doing seems geared to cull the population.
I know that's but damn.
Girard442
(6,065 posts)People thought that calling Trump a Nazi was a figure of speech. It's not.
HAB911
(8,867 posts)Survival of the brightest