http://firedoglake.com/2009/07/15/wsj-editorial-the-government-doesnt-fix-our-cars-so-why-should-it-provide-universal-health-care/WSJ Editorial: The Government Doesn’t Fix Our Cars, So Why Should It Provide Universal Health Care?
By: Blue Texan Wednesday July 15, 2009 10:30 am
I'll take deeply ridiculous wingnut analogies for $500, Alex.
People who seek the services of auto mechanics want car repair, not "auto care." Similarly, most people who seek the services of medical doctors want body repair, not "health care."
We own our cars, are responsible for the cost of maintaining them, and decide what needs fixing based partly on balancing the seriousness of the problem against the expense of repairing it. Our health-care system rests on the principle that, although we own our bodies, the community or state ought to be responsible for paying the cost of repairing them. This is for the ostensibly noble purpose of redistributing the potentially ruinous expense of the medical care of unfortunate individuals.
Pretty silly.
I can choose to repair my car's A/C, based on what I think that's worth to me -- a cost-benefit analysis. Even though it's hot in Austin, I could make the assessment that, given my car's age and mileage, it's not really worth repairing its A/C. So I can decide to put up with the heat.
On the other hand,
I cannot subject getting treated for pancreatic cancer to a similar cost-benefit analysis, because my life has a value to me that I cannot quantify. And while I can simply get another car, I cannot get another body. Therefore, I would pay anything to fix my body. My Jeep, not so much.This is the essential problem with for-profit health care. How do you place a monetary value on your life, or the life of a loved one? Also, I'd venture to guess that if 60% of Americans went bankrupt fixing their cars, almost no one would own them.
Other than that, perfect analogy there, Dr. Szasz.
And who is this Dr. Szasz, you ask?
Together with the Church of Scientology, Szasz co-founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), in 1969, to help clean up the field of human rights abuses. He remains on CCHR's Board of Advisors as Founding Commissioner, and continues to provide content for the CCHR. In the keynote address at the 25th anniversary of CCHR, Szasz stated: "We should all honor CCHR because it is really the organization that for the first time in human history has organized a politically, socially, internationally significant voice to combat psychiatry. This has never been done in human history before."
Just the kind of guy we want setting health care policy in this country.