Health Care Is Not a Right [excerpt] - www.afcm.org

Presented by Americans for Free Choice in Medicine (AFCM). www.afcm.org. This lecture by Dr. Leonard Peikoff was delivered at a Town Hall Meeting on health care in Costa Mesa, California, and is published in the book Why Businessmen Need Philosophy by Ayn Rand and others. Copyright (c) 1993 Leonard Peikoff. Used by permission.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ayn
• rand
• leonard
• peikoff
• universal
• health
• care
• socialized
• medicine
• afcm
• objectivism
• richard
• ralston

[Anteater1234567]

I am British, I do want the NHS to be phased out into private care, I am not insane.

America provides an on average marginally better service, at an on average marginally lower cost to the majority of citizens through its private system. That is in spite of the lobbies, in spite of the licensing laws that cause artificial scarcity, in spite of healthcare not being allowed to be sold across state lines, in spite of tariffs on drug imports, in spite of the FDA bureaucracy.

[Hokibukisa]

Everytime you say regulation, add cost to the equation.

[damnedcarrot]

Yeah fuck everyone.I hate how govts try to control where my money goes. I dont care about the better good of society and people. I just want what i want, consume and destroy as i see fit. Fuck socialist government who want to look after the betterment of humans as a group. If someone is sick or dieing and cant afford to pay for it they deserve to suffer because they are scum. It is darwinian principle. YEAH THIS GUY ROCKS!

[nathanreinhardt]

Peikoff's voice has no volume adjustment, just an on/off position, with the volume full blast. The upside is, he always sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

[Tracywithafacey]

@AhYaOk Ahhh i see what you are saying, my bad. And i have to say i am sort of agreed with you on the insurance issue. There is a great video by jon stossel about how inefficient insurance is in health, in terms of prices etc. He compares it to if you were to have insurance for food, you would just buy everything, all the expensive stuff, and insurers would have to keep increasing prices. I am quite undecided on health insurance, it isnt something i have looked into at great length

[AhYaOk]

@Tracywithafacey you are talking about a free market being good because of efficiency and to drive prices down. yes, i know economics. but thats not exactly what we're talking about. the problem is that the prices doctors charge is not determined by the free market. as you know, insurance companies are a middle man. and to make it worse, it is not looking out for your best interest, obviously. this existing system creates higher prices than would otherwise exist.

[Tracywithafacey]

@AhYaOk I guess my answer is that i would much rather see private business working on a profit basis, competitive companies working against each other. And the government would be bad at providing it because the NHS is a non profit health system, and i really do not believe it has worked well at all. High costs, out of date drugs, waiting times etc. But this is just my take and im sure you have your own :) And your answer would be yes i would want the private sector to regulate itself

[AhYaOk]

@Tracywithafacey i'm talking about nonprofit insurance. why would the government be bad at running it? they are just as accountable for performance as the private sector. its a very general statement you're making there. do you want the private sector to regulate itself when it comes to food, drugs, labor laws? what does this have to do with the free market? insurance companies hinder the medical market in this case.

[AhYaOk]

@AhYaOk no you wouldn't pay twice. its not required if you don't want it. if you don't want it then you don't get it.

[Tracywithafacey]

@AhYaOk Because the government operates things so much worse than the private sector. For example, most western democracies do not want monopolies, they want competition. When you take health care into the hands of the government you are monopolising it. Competition ceases and therefore prices are high. People claim it is free, but it is not, it is taxed, and god dam it costs a hell of a lot of money. The private sector is so much more efficient, it has to be, the government doesnt