[quote=davelj]I’d rather do that then live in the Libertarian Fantasyland where I have to worry about getting shot every time I walk out the door.[/quote]
I was just answering the question – “is health-care a right.” Whatever fantasy you are talking about that involves guns isn’t one I share. You are thinking “anarchy” I believe.
Just as a general comment, I also think it is a big mistake to mix welfare and the health-care market in one big “reform” package.
Even if health-care is a right, it makes sense to keep the health-care market a free market, but to separately allow for charitable and government organizations to help people afford the market-based services.
This keeps the market efficient and inexpensive while providing funds to the needy to navigate the market.
In other words, if the government wants to force charity, they should just wrestle cash from the taxpayers and pass it along to poor people in need.
Food stamps are welfare, but at least food stamps keep the food market a clean market. They aren’t in there, trying to regulate food prices, dictate the kind of food provided, etc, which would hose-up the market for everyone else.
With health-care, they mush welfare and market mechanisms together and the market gets completely hosed up and we end up with disasters.
You can always provide health-care to all by simply giving the poor people money to spend on health-care. This is independent from fixing the mess of a health-care system we have – which involves insurance requirements, medical licensing, the FDA, and, as I see it, the whole industry is a government-regulated monopoly.
