alex chiang: web 6.0

A well-written editorial in the CSM today entitled Must you buy health insurance?. If you think you might get sick in the next 4 to 8 years, it may behoove you to take a quick read.

While I agree that “healthcare” in America is seriously screwed up, neither of the Democratic candidates’ plans will fix the root cause of teh suck. [Of the two, Obama's is less bad.]

As others way smarter than I have pointed out, the real problem with health care in America today stems from two reasons:

1. Health care is unlike any other typical good or service one would normally purchase, because when you are sick, you are willing to pay anything to get well. Note that “anything” includes “money you don’t actually have”. No judgment on my part there; it’s simply the truth, and I’d do the same.
2. Capitalism.

No judgment on that second bullet either. Capitalism in America has done way more good for our country than bad.

However, in the case of health care, the toxic combination above has created such an environment where rational people might actually think that Michael Moore can make a decent movie. editor’s note: we do not actually think that; we are merely pointing out that others may.

Clearly the current system is not sustainable. We can do better. Maybe a single payer system is the answer, I don’t know. But requiring mandatory private insurance fixes neither of the two root causes of our ills today.