Healthcare should not be free

An axiomatic deduction of “Healthcare should not be free” starting from 5 agreeable axioms.

I like the idea of my site being a snapshot of my thoughts that I can point to people when having a discussion.

I don’t like repeating the same arguments over and over.

So here are some of my thoughts on “Socialised Healthcare”[1] for wider exposure and future reference.

I’ll start with 5 agreeable axioms and use them systematically to derive “Healthcare should not be free”

  1. People own their own time
  2. Markets are the most efficient price discovery system
  3. We want the best treatment possible for the most people possible
  4. People respond to incentives
  5. Government Money is limited, and the only way to get more is by extracting it from individuals (governments don’t create value, individuals do)

2 + “Free Healthcare” -> 6a 6b

In a world of free healthcare (no market) we can’t know if we’re paying too much or too little for healthcare.

So let’s branch out this deduction in the two different cases, 6a and 6b.

6a is with free healthcare we’re paying too much for healthcare

6b is with free healthcare we’re paying too little for healthcare

6a + 5 -> 7

If people pay too much for healthcare and government money is limited, then more money is taken from productive places and invested in less productive places.

The price of healthcare becomes unfair. Everyone is forced to pay an unfair price.

7 + 4 -> 8

If people have incentives to do things that aren’t productive, the world is less prosperous.

8 + 3 -> Conclusion

If the world is less prosperous and socialised healthcare is more expensive than individually paid healthcare, we’re getting a really bad deal.

To get the best treatment possible for the most people possible we should then just pay for our own care. (and for the one of the people that are close to us)

1 + 4 -> 9

As people own their own time and they’ll optimize their lives for either more free time, more wealth or status.

A higher income allows individuals to pick the mix of things they want from life.

6b + 9 -> 10

If people are paid less then what they should be for healthcare work they’ll move to other areas, and medical research will be slower.

Healthcare will also be crowded by less skilled people.

10 + 3 -> Conclusion

With more incompetent doctors in the short term people get worse healthcare.

In the long term you get even worse results, because of less incentives for research.

[1] We’ll talk about “Free Healthcare” and “Socialised Healthcare” as interchangeable terms.

Featured image adapted from BestServedBold’s Dribbble