The Rationing of Healthcare
The champions of President Obama's healthcare plan told us that "reform will stop 'rationing' - not increase it." This was a lie. Obamacare did not and cannot stop the rationing of healthcare. Given the nature of the world, healthcare will always be rationed. Skilled doctors are limited in number. Medical supplies and resources are limited. Since the medical resources of the world are finite, and the desire for healthcare is limitless, the finite healthcare resources will have to be rationed to those who desire medical services. The question is not whether medical resources will be rationed, but how these limited resources will be rationed.
In a free market, the health care resources are ‘rationed’ to those who can pay the doctor for his services or to those who receive voluntary charity from the doctor or some other source. Those who cannot afford the service or cannot get charity, do not get the healthcare. If someone wants the health care, he has two choices: (1) He will find some way to earn the money to pay for the procedure, or (2) he will find a charitable doctor, friend, family member, or organization to help him pay for the care. In a free market, this is how healthcare is 'rationed'.
In a socialist system, the healthcare resources are rationed by a bureaucrat who determines when or if you get the healthcare you desire. Care is given to the person favored by the bureaucrat or the guidelines set by bureaucrats. The citizens of the nation will then be taxed/forced to pay for the services that the state distributes to its favored recipients. Obama's healthcare plan cannot deliver us from the economic law of scarcity. Rationing is inevitable.
Along with socialized healthcare comes bureaucratic regulation of prices. Instead of doctors and patients determining the ‘reasonable price’ of a service, a central planner will tell doctors and patients what services should cost. Historically, this has resulted in a decreased supply of healthcare at a greater cost to the taxpayer. Fewer services will become available at higher cost to the people.
Americans generally don’t care about these economic realities. They just want someone else to pay for their healthcare. They don’t care if the cost of healthcare rises and the scarcity of healthcare increases. They hope the system will work in their favor.
Thus, the root of our preference for the socialist system is covetousness. We want access to healthcare at the expense of other people. Someone might retort, “The free market doesn’t do away with coveting.” I agree completely. The difference between the two systems is this: The covetous man in a free market is forced to work hard to get the money he desires. The covetous man in the socialist system is encouraged to convince the bureaucrats to steal from productive members of society and give it to him. A free market encourages the greedy man to work hard in order to earn money, while the socialist system encourages the greedy man to enter politics.