Milton Friedman on universal health care

Milton Friedman and his take on the idea of socialized medicine also known as universal health care. He is no fan of the idea. Citing it will detract from both quality of care and increases overall cost. Universal health care is still a issue that is strongly debated today. Milton Friedman was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

[maxcohen]

_"The spending for the provision of medical care inevitably leads to control over fees that are charged for medical care."_

If you want to know why health insurance is a multi-billion-dollar industry, look no further than this statement. Dead on.

[gregcarlson]

this guy had a time machine. He must have come to 2016 and saw what happened.

[kangkd]

Civics people....we can have debate without getting into name calling, slander, or libel. If you disagree with the argument made, offer the counter argument and if no compromise can be made, just agree to disagree! Its fine! Life does not revolve around debate. More classes in civic discussion is needed in our universities and education system. My belief is that we can start learning and practicing this form of discussion right here on youtube.

[OneWadeBronson]

I know this was posted a while ago, but it would be helpful if you posted in the description when this talk was given and to whom.

[sarabizarro]

Public healthcare does not cause the demise of private healthcare. Any country should have a basic healthcare system available to all citizens for preventive care, accidents, and any other diseases. Private enterprise can offer even better healthcare, better hospitals, doctors, etc. I am from Portugal, we have free universal healthcare AND private health care institutions. Every citizen knows they can see a doctor and get medicine, go to a hospital and get treatment. If they want a higher end experience in their health care there are many other options. The quality of those options is much higher since the private enterprises need to offer much more than the free health care in order to be attractive to the citizens who are able to pay for them.

[sophrapsune]

Yet another brilliant and valuable analysis from Prof Friedman.
What he does address here, and would have been most useful, is his analysis of universal public health insurance, as opposed to a government-run public health system. That is what people really vote for in the ethical interest of universal health care.

[SecondLifeDesigner]

Health care ran by a bad bloated bureaucracy will result in bad health care. Health care where there are too many administrators and upper executives who have bloated salaries sucking dry the American people results in bad health care which is what we have today. Too many people at the top, who are not necessary nor contribute to the actual process of providing health care to patients, making too much profit off the American people out of shear greed. Deregulation and a government controlled by the super wealthy and corporations has allowed this to happen. There is no free market when government is controlled by the super wealthy and corporations. Those who already have wealth or corporations who are already successful keep the playing field tipped in their favor by controlling the government to squash and real competition a true free market would bring.

[alvagoldbook]

One of the biggest drivers of health care costs is that technology now has gotten so advanced that it's extremely expensive to do this, particularly in a private system where you can have the benefit of pooling the greatest number of people to share the costs related to that technology. The horrific bureaucracy doesn't make it better either. I've often thought that one possible solution would be to keep things private for the most part, keep it as deregulated as possible, but have a public system in place to pay for emergency services. Emergency services could be done by private health insurance as well, but at least with a public system you could have a health care provider of last resort.

[joeyrobinson]

Can someone link to the study that he is quoting?

[reaperunleashed]

I am so tired of people saying socialized healthcare is great because it is better than the US system. The reason that healthcare is so messed up in the US is because of government control and regulation. So how in the world is more government control the solution if it is the problem in the first place? If we actually had a free market in healthcare, then people would be paying out of pocket for non-emergency treatment which would lead to consumers staying away from hospital overcharging them for every little thing. Insurance would take care of emergency treatment in which consumers have no say on how much they are charged. There is no reason that hospitals should be charging five-star hotel prices for rooms and exuberant prices for simple things like band-aids in a truly free market.

[BlazeDuskdreamer]

He calls right off with control over the practices that are followed.

Prime example: the war on pain patients as I refer to the opioid crisis. Flat out equating prescription pain meds with street drugs because they are both opioids. Pain patients rarely become addicted to their meds and where they do, it is combined with street drugs and/or alcohol.

This has recently affected even my overly cautious use of hydrocodone. I take 5mg a day that controls both pain and my IBS and I skip that twice a week to avoid building up a tolerance. I don't want to need more and this amount is a recent increase from 30 pills lasting six months specifically because I'm paranoid about addiction. This amount is not addictive.

My primary care not only had no problem when I went to him and said I have to discuss this because my degenerative and incurable bone disease is worsening and pain is increasing but was surprised I wasn't actually taking it every morning. But when I returned a couple of weeks ago, he filled it reluctantly even after I informed him I skip it twice a week and intimated that I should be put on Prozac instead.

First of all, why? If it's not broke, why fix it? The hydrocodone is working and I have been freer on the 5mg every morning than I have been for years.

2nd, I find the push to put me on antidepressants when I don't need antidepressants a most alarming attempt to control my mind. Not going to happen and I am stressed and worried because he implied that he will not continue to prescribe me hydrocodone.

This means looking for a new primary care because, frankly, calling such abuse of a patient, making her suffer needlessly by taking away a working medicine for one that may or may not work and has scarier side effects for a patient that seems to have the horrid luck of side effects happening (which is why hydrocodone controls my IBS), incompetent is being kind. This makes me run the risk of being labelled doctor shopping and drug seeking which is a ludricious accusation on such a close to nothing dosage unless you consider it drug seeking to seek out the medicine that actually works for you without side affects that land you in the hospital (as every other prescription pain med tried for me has).

Oh, yes, the government is definitely controlling - inefficiently as always - our medical care. At least if you're a chronic pain sufferer and I suspect probably other conditions as well that I don't deal with but right now it's the "opioid crisis/epidemic" that is the political football and the government is waging war on pain patients.

[gordonbradley]

compare and contrast :
the USA medical system.
the UK medical system.
( do not write on both sides of the paper at the same time ).

[garrysekelli]

I'm sure Ron Paul must have been a fan of this guy back in the day.

[livefreeordie]

And they won... only way to beat the system is to be healthy as best u can. But they're rigging that too. When i was a kid there were 8-10 aisles in a supermarket of relatively healthy food. What does a market look like today? 20 aisles of food which mostly are killing you. Hence the customer base for Obamacare. Sad.

[scottroder]

I wrote my last college paper on libertarian economic theory. Hayek and Friedman were very smart men.

[ryanbennett]

I'm not sure of the behind the scenes and red tape of the NHS over here in the UK - But its one of the most celebrated and useful systems we have.

[maskedmarvyl]

I worked in healthcare for 20 years. Milton Friedman didn't have a clue as to how hospital billing and medical billing practices actually work, how hospitals collude to keep medical service fees high, or how private insurance companies collude to keep premiums high for their customers while denying coverage for expensive conditions. Friedman was against the very concept of regulating any of that dishonest behavior by private companies. $$$ One wonders why? $$$

[AaronMichaelLong]

Here's my question: If we were to graduate to a fee for service medical system, where the direct relationship between doctor and patient is restored, instead of all the machinery of bureaucracy (because, let's face it, an insurance provider is just as opaque and bureaucratic as a government to its average customer), how are medical providers meant to honour their hippocratic oath? A doctors, nurses and physicians expected to simply let people unable to pay for treatment suffer and die?

[Redmanticore]

3:07 - 3:16 monopolies are not small advantage or lead to their own disadvantage.

[marysaw]

You will not have your blood drawn or urine tested in the doctors office. They will send you to a lab and you will wait there to get your blood tests and then make another appointment with your doctor for the results. Sometimes 3 weeks. Its not a big deal if your not in a hurry.