August 7, 2009
Observe and report, citizen!
QotD: It’s not insurance, it’s welfare
Have [New York Times writers and editors] no understanding of risk management? If it is controversial for health insurers to reject sick applicants, it should be controversial for life insurers to refuse to insure the already dead, and for car insurers to refuse to insure cars that have already been wrecked.
Doing that may be required by Congress and cheered by the New York Times, but that doesn’t make it a good thing for America. It doesn’t even make it insurance. It’s welfare. We can debate whether such welfare is good policy, but let’s discuss it honestly. Calling welfare “insurance” muddies thinking.
Requiring insurance companies to cover the sick takes away insurers’ power to encourage safer behavior. This will soon turn insurance into a form of expensive, taxpayer funded welfare.
John Stossel, “Welfare, Not Insurance”, John Stossel’s Take, 2009-08-05
July 22, 2009
Looking for Canadian health stats?
Kathy Shaidle has some useful advice for Americans who may be looking for information on the Canadian healthcare system.
Up here, the key word in discussions is “wait times”. That’s what we say, when you say “rationing.” The ONLY way for our system to work is to “hope” somebody ahead of you in the line for care dies, and you can take their place. A very cynical, nasty way to run a country, to say the least.
So go to Google.ca (especially the “News” section) and look up “wait times” if you want to get the real Canadian conversation on our health care system.
July 20, 2009
QotD: TANSTAARTHC
There. I said it. Someone had to.
The acronym would be TANSTAARTHC. Nowhere near as euphonius as TANSTAAFL.
I broach the subject because I can’t seem to turn on a TV or radio without hearing, “Health care is a human right.” The phrase has entered the zeitgeist. Google it and you’ll get 25k hits. Google “right to health care” and you get 200k. Maybe I’m not listening hard enough, but I hear no one questioning its validity.
A right is intrinsic. It’s not given to you, it’s something you’re born with. Its existence is not dependent on the actions of others. In fact, only by the actions of others can it be taken from you.
F. Paul Wilson, “There ain’t no such thing as a right to health care “, Libertarian Enterprise, 2009-07-19
