Yaron Answers: What's Wrong With Free Health Care?

medicare social security single payer welfare economy

[captainplanet]

well why should i pay for the war machine? or for the roads? or for oil subsidies? or for corporate jet subsidies?

[cosmicbluevox]

"Someone has to pay for health care"

Taxes, income tax, taxes on goods and services.

oh I forgot, it all went to military.

[kjakobsen]

"What's Wrong With Free Health Care?"

Besides the fact, that nothing is free?

[diegomorales]

If I have a "right" to your labor and the products of your labor, then what principle limits my claims on you?

[WhirlOmar]

Yes somebody has to pay for it but the price manipulation by lobbyists, the medical companies, and the insurance companies are the crux of the problem I think.

[johnjkiwi]

America spends far more on healthcare per person than the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France and Japan.
And yet Americans have a lower life expectancy than people from any of these countries.
Huge medical bills are the biggest cause of bankruptcies in the US, and the biggest reason for Go Fund Me campaigns.

[paulm]

The American Healthcare system, brilliant for insurance companies, disastrous for patients.

[jeviosoorishas]

The concept of individual rights still goes over most people's heads.

When you believe that humans are self-destructive and life is a zero-sum game, you embrace socialism, so you can have bureaucrats save humans from themselves. Yet it is almost a certainty, that our modern wealth and standard of living did not come from such assumptions, but in fact that such assumptions are a byproduct of our feudal past.

Envy is indeed a very strong reality altering drug.

[MrT]

Us national debt= +18 trillion dollars. How much money is this new extension of the government going to cost? 17 trillion dollars...
It will literally double the United States' debt over night. Why do people think this is a good idea? Let's be very generous and say 50 million Americans can't afford healthcare, that number is almost equal to the number of Americans that are considered poor (45 million). The only way you could realistically pay for this even in the long LONG term is to drastically cut every other government program (including the military and social welfare programs) for YEARS and raise taxes to the highest levels they have ever been. Thereby creating more poverty! Nothing is free!!!

[ronda]

You are right, people should die because people with lifetimes worth of money can’t give up a fraction of what they have to help others.

[marvindortmann]

"It's good for everybody. It's a win-win situation..."

No it isn't good for everybody. It's good for the people that can pay for health care. Without universal health care, the poorest would be damned to die from illnesses that weren't their fault.

I'm a libertarian on many positions, but I can't justify a society without universal health care. Without universal health care, any form of government is almost pointless. Why invest in infrastructure that all people should profit from, when the weakest members of our society die from illnesses that could be easily prevented. Why have a military to protect the citizens from foreign threats, when the goverment doesn't care about their survival in the first place.

Yaron Brook is mostly critizing the fact that "free" health care isn't free. Of course it isn't and any supporter knows that. It's nothing more than a wrong label.

"I don't want to pay for your health care. Why don't you pay for your health care?"

Universal health care is intended for people who CAN'T pay for their free health care. If everybody could offord it, we obviously wouldn't need such a system. The costs of the health care of individuals isn't linked to their choices.

In my opinion, the government should pay for basic health care. If you want better service, you can extra pay for it. Just abolish a lot of the way too big and useless bureaucracy of western countries and instead focus on what really matters for its citizens.

[kravitzn]

Other countries have free healthcare. Like Canada, the UK, etc. They're doing quite well. Let's just do what they're doing.

[keifer]

1:15 So if your neighbour was dying and you could've helped prevent their death - you won't do anything?

Not the kind of society I'd wanna live in

[AmerginMacEccit]

It is not free, that's what's wrong :) It is paid by taxpayers not directly. It all costs work, effort and time. Healthcare staff does not work for free, do they? Someone says, alright the government pays for this or that. You pay for it, the government is just a manager you fund to make those matters more convenient :) It is like in a corporation, you may own 51% but you still hire people to manage everything for you.
In general, the longer route it takes to get a product or a service to a client or recipient the more expensive it gets.

[russe]

Love how he ties himself up trying to explain paying for health insurance and realizes he's sounding exactly like someone try to explain universal healthcare

[beefcakesjones]

I don’t want to pay for the road this guy drives on. Why should the government confiscate my money?

[heesofi]

Nobody in Europe calls it "Free Health care"... Nobody!!
Everybody in Europe who has national governed health care knows that we pay this through taxes.
Only US observers call it "Free". Simply because they are not told how it works - The level of uninformed opinions on this matter in the US is un- believeable..
It is also arrogant. The cost of running it is far below the US system. -And we are not falling behind in standards..
But all this you can find out by looking into this yourself instead of taking this guy for granted...

[EricHansen-er]

Except it’s not “really” voluntary under the current system. If you “choose” not to get insurance, and something happens, you pay astronomical prices for care. That’s why 60% of bankruptcies are medical in nature. If I pay $10, 000 per year for care now, and $10, 000 per year under a single payer system, then what’s the difference? Well, besides the fact that in the single payer system, there are no surprises, your bill is easy to understand, you can walk into any doctors office for treatment, and you don’t go bankrupt because of an unexpected illness.

[evjcuov]

Bruh here in Canada we have free health care no trouble, Doctors still get paid here🤨

[enlightenedterrestrial]

I'm so glad I live in Europe where all the countries have this "free" (universal) health care. No one here is saying stuff like "Hey, let's cut our taxes and make everyone pay for his own healthcare." Sometimes, not everyone can afford the treatment. That is why we, Europeans, are willing to make a little sacrifice for the greater good and invest into a state so that the healthcare is provided to all the classes, both rich and poor. It's like a charity. (Oh, and you still have private doctors where you can pay more and not wait in line.)
I'm not a socialist. USSR's Socialism destroyed our economy in less than 40 years after WW2. All I'm saying is there are some good and valid points in social system that are worth implementing. The fact that US doesn't have healthcare like we do is mind-boggling...