I write fairly frequently about health care policy. And almost every time I do, someone crawls out of the woodwork and says something similar to this:
I worked hard for my health insurance. I don’t see why someone who didn’t work hard, save, and prioritize paying for health insurance, should get as good a health care as I do.
Let’s look at this. We’ll leave aside the assumption that people who don’t have health insurance aren’t hard workers, it’s bullshit, but let’s grant it. Let’s say it’s true. Then lets parse the morality of this statement. Let’s re-state it more clearly:
Lazy people don’t deserve good and timely health care. That means that some of them will die or suffer pain, nausea or debilitation that could otherwise be stopped, but since they’re lazy they deserve to die or suffer for their laziness.
Let’s take this one step further. It is a fact that the US pays about 50% more per capita for health care than Canada. On all major metrics except for one the Canadian system performs as well or better than the US one. What is that metric?
Non-essential surgery waiting times.
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