Health Care Less

The problem making something free is all the jerks that take advantage. There are several reasons they gobble it up; 1) Just in case I need it in the future, 2) I'm paying for it through taxes so I might as well take what I'm paying for, 3) It's not fair that someone else gets it without me getting one too, 4) If I wait until I need it, they might all be gone, or 5) If I take them all early, nobody that really needs one can get one (ha ha). These reasons are all asshole reasons but there is one real American reason that would prevent a system of free stuff from ever working. If I can get these services free and mark them up to people who will pay for them, then I can make a tidy profit and create a good business. Or even if I'm selling a competing product, it makes sense for me to absorb the free stuff, destroy it, or at least make it look bad.

The middle man is in everything. At first there were ticket scalpers and now there's Ticketmaster and StubHub. Car (or any product) salesmen are just there to squeeze the most extra money out of you they can. If someone says you would make a good salesman, it means you're a total asshole. It's the same with health insurance. When there's a service that nobody can afford (health care), you pay monthly an amount that depends on the chances you might use the service. It's a smoothing function that makes the healthy people pay for the sick unless they're willing to gamble they won't get sick. Force everyone to pay and you might as well get rid of the insurance companies. Why don't insurance companies like this idea? We've already created an industry on people gambling whether they will get sick or not. If we fix it to give sick people the best care possible, millions of people will lose their jobs, but at least they'll have health care. They shouldn't be allowed to make people buy health insurance just like the hospitals should be allowed to make all the people without health insurance pay before you pump. You opted out of health insurance so we're going to have to let you die.

If we get rid of all the useless jobs, how will stupid people have an opportunity to get rich too?  There's always the lottery.