You lost me there. What makes it immoral? Money is an asset allocation tool, so why is it morally wrong to use it for medicine the same way we do for food and housing?
Genuine question. I have a hard time understanding what sets medicine apart from everything else when people think healthcare should be universally free, but not food, water, clothing, housing, etc. especially considering those other things are more directly necessary for survival.
If you have cancer though than basicall the market cannot find a price, and it would tend towards to: 'give me all you have'.
Yes it can... there is more than one oncologist in the world. Competition exists.
As for if youre talking about the chemo drugs, you don't have to use the latest-and-greatest on-patent treatment. There are now decades of drugs that are off patent. They may not be as good, but then again, it is your life so many choose to pay for the new better ones. If it was illegal to pay more for better drugs than they would never exist (and don't talk to me about government funding; not a single socialized medicine country has innovated any drug of value in the past 50 years, and yes, they do steal from us in the USA by taking our IP and not paying for it).
Proof? Services not typically covered, like plastic surgery or cosmetic dermatology. Clearly listed and even advertised prices for their services, openly discussed up front.
But if the govt reimbursement rate for an annual checkup is $x, why would anyone need to list that price up front, or have reason to ever charge any less?
Changing housing situations is exactly as easy as changing hospitals and emergency rooms no? Since the latter are mostly decided by where you live. In fact, most mid to large cities feature many hospitals near any given residence, so it is actually easier. I would also point out that the demand curve for housing, energy and food are far more inelastic than for medicine.
> If you have cancer though than basicall the market cannot find a price, and it would tend towards to: 'give me all you have'.
Why couldn't the market find a price? Cancer actually seems like the worse example possible. The people I've known who've been diagnosed with cancer have shopped around for care from many different hospitals. It would seem that cancer would be the perfect candidate for market forces to lower prices since a diagnosis generally affords a bit of time to find and decide on treatment options. Even in the extreme case of 'you have months to live' people tend to spend a few weeks collecting different opinions.
And indeed the US has many such services, though they are often overwhelmed, or performed through a complex set of nonprofits combining govt funds with donor money as best they can to provide good support. Sometimes they are overwhelmed specifically because of externalities related to the for-profit insurance healthcare system. The high and often unpredictable cost of any medical situation, means people with tight budgets become sicker before getting care, if they ever get it, leading to a higher percentage of bad outcomes, up to and including job loss and homelessness for the individual, and knock-on effects for the rest of their family. This puts extra pressure on the parts of the support system that do exist - those already mentioned, and, of course, the police, who end up getting called to many situations that could have been prevented by the people involved having better services to begin with, to meet their health, food, and housing needs.
Isn't it though? "This thing should be free for everyone all the time" is a lot different than "we should help people out a little if they're down on their luck". Temporary housing, food banks, etc are the latter, and I'm all for the same with medicine. The fact that food and housing are subject to markets makes it easier for organizations to carry out such missions, which is one of the barriers you mention in your second paragraph when you talk about the complexities of dealing with insurance companies.
Medicine is a scarce resource at this point, and, generally speaking, giving care to X often means Y won't get it. The fundamental problem with medical care is supply, lowering barriers for demand isn't a solution to that.
EDIT: After further reading it appears that private health care is a murky area in some provinces. My above stated belief appears to be wrong at least in terms of how things actually work there. Here is my view. Private medical care should be banned.
On top of that, official medical staff wages were crap. People were forced either work for peanuts (IMO nurses and doctors jobs are damn hard and they have to be paid well), take money under table or... emigrate.
Now we have mixed system and it's definitely better than it was before. Doctors gets paid well. Elite doctors tend to work 2-3 days in private clinics and then 2-3 days in public hospitals so you can still get hold of them for free. Those who have an inch for premium services can pay local&legal, so local economy wins.
Anyway… I think both systems are very similar in the end. Rich (or even middle class) gets great service in premium facilities. Average folks get OK service with some downsides, likely paying out of pocket in various ways. The only difference may be poor people coverage which is subsidized by upper tier payers. Who themselves may never use public service and go to premium only.
Also, another major difference may be the big expensive procedures. Aside from the 1%, people would do the procedure in public hospital because it’s crazy expensive otherwise. But everything else leading up to it and recovery after it more likely to happen in premium market since it’s much more affordable.
