James Leroy Wilson's one-man magazine.

Monday, March 17, 2014

What if nobody wants to become a doctor?

Q: Is free healthcare a human right?

A: Yes.

Q: What if nobody wants to become a doctor?

- - -

Q: Should healthcare be profit-driven?

A: Of course not!

Q: So doctors must live at subsistence level, even denied enough salary to save for a rainy day, a nice vacation, or retirement?

A: Don't be silly! Of course doctors should be well-paid! They're valuable to society!

Q: How can that be accomplished, if their offices, or the clinics or hospitals they work at, can't turn a profit?

- - -

Q: Should drugs be regulated for safety?

A: Of course!

Q: Who should regulate them?

A: The government.

Q: Because drug companies want to kill their customers?

A: You never know. Corporations can't be trusted, or they'll make mistakes.

Q:  But government regulators can't be wrong?

A: Well, yes they can, but they're working for the public interest, not for profit.

Q: But when the government scientists are wrong, can consumers boycott that government and choose another one?

- - -

Q: Are drug prices too high?

A: YES!

Q: Should the government control their prices?

A: YES!

Q: So what if the government sets a prices so low that drug companies stop making them?

- - -

Q: Should healthcare become more affordable?

A: Yes.

Q: Should doctors be licensed?

A: Yes, of course! Are you crazy?

Q: Does licensing restrict the supply of doctors?

A: Well, yes, but licensing makes sure that they're good doctors.

Q: But if there are fewer doctors, they have less competition, correct?

A: Yes.

Q: Less competition means higher prices, correct?

A: Well, yes.

Q: So you don't really want prices to go down, do you? You prefer the safety in the knowledge that the doctors we do have are competent?

A: I guess so...

Q: So it turns out that maybe it's worth the high price, if the doctors are good?

A: Maybe...

Q: And we should keep the licensing requirements?

A: Yes.

Q: So it's better that a poor, underserved community has no doctor at all than an unlicensed one?

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:42 AM CDT

    Good. Socrates is still new!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Part of the reason that doctors can enjoy the incomes that they do is because of prescription laws. Prescription laws give doctors a legal government enforced monopoly over access to medical drugs. In other words they can extort money from their patients as the patient does not have a legal right to access medical drugs without the "permission" of a doctor's prescription. This is why a doctor can require frequent office visits and lab tests. The patient has effectively become much like a drug addict who is dependent upon the "supplier". For those curious, visit my blog at "muskegonlibertarian,wordpress,com" where I go into detail as to how doctors and other licensed professionals enrich themselves through a government monopoly. The same applies to some degree with the licensed occupations. Government, by favoring some over others, is one of the causes of our economic problems we have today.

    ReplyDelete