I was all set to cite this New York Times article on violation rates in nursing homes simply in a "Questions" entry: Shouldn't a supposed "right to health care" include a right to violation-free nursing home care? Etc. But I'm changing tack after having read the whole piece: More than 90 percent of nursing homes [...]
Filed under: Socialized Medicine | 1 Comment »
To review: Health care, however defined, is a scarce good like any other good or service. And like any other scarce good or service, it must be rationed. The only question is how it will be rationed — by private market forces (perhaps bounded by a minimal, humane social safety net for the truly incompetent) [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Socialized Medicine | 1 Comment »
A federal district judge has ruled that New York State's Medicaid program may deny a certain indigent person a certain operation because the state has a legitimate interest in "conserving limited medical resources." As I have said ad nauseum: the notion that an economy can provide all the health care that everyone needs or wants [...]
Filed under: Gay Rights and Issues, Law, New York City & State, Socialized Medicine | 2 Comments »
In yesterday's New York Times, Paul Krugman does what he does best:
Filed under: Economics & Finance, Socialized Medicine | 4 Comments »
You know the standard libertarian anti-conscription talking point about how the reason societies are so willing to engage in it is because of age-based majoritarianism (i.e., older people who would not be drafted outnumber younger people who would be drafted)? Scratch that one off the list: Want to do something truly patriotic to help preserve [...]
Filed under: Economics & Finance, Socialized Medicine | Comments Off
Tyler Cowen has a follow-up on means testing generally (see my earlier post on his call for means testing of Medicare specifically): Hardly anyone wants to endorse means-testing but almost everyone is for it. Of course Medicaid, food stamps, HUD housing assistance, and many other programs are already means-tested. Perhaps, but many government programs that [...]
Filed under: Economics & Finance, Libertarianism, Socialized Medicine | Comments Off
To review: Health care, like any other good or service, is scarce and must therefore be rationed. The only question is how it will be rationed: by private market forces as determined by patients, physicians (and, yes, insurance companies) — or by politicians and bureaucrats. The inability to see this simple economic truth — that [...]
Filed under: Libertarianism, Social Security, Socialized Medicine | 1 Comment »
Behold the latest example of the "universal right to health care" — Barrie Clark, 61, was told in May that he could receive a free supply of a new kidney cancer drug on compassionate grounds from the pharmaceuticals company that makes it. Clark was then astonished to be told by the NHS that he could [...]
Filed under: Socialized Medicine | 1 Comment »
For those who were righteously indignant after reading my recent post about an incident involving some California educrats and law enforcement officials maliciously tormenting students by falsely informing them that their classmates had been killed in DUI accidents ("we want them to be traumatized"), may I offer you a denouement? An unsuspecting mother was accused [...]
Filed under: Foreign Affairs, Law Enforcement Abuses, Socialized Medicine | Comments Off
Fascinating comparison-and-contrast: Apparently, there has been a steady, driving force from Democratic circles (Hi Pete Stark!) over the years to restrict the existence of physician owned facilities. The assumption is that when doctors own a hospital, they will order more unnecessary tests and procedures because there exists a financial incentive to do so. … I'm [...]
Filed under: Activist Legislators & Nanny Statists, Economics & Finance, Property Rights, Socialized Medicine | 2 Comments »