Also keep in mind that government inherently does not produce or make anything, but only takes from those who have already done so. The merits of this can be debated, of course, but there is no creation of wealth from the government; at best, it can preserve it, but even that is unrealistic and not historically true.

As for the WHO ranking the US #37 in health care system, I”ll say this: everything fails irrelevant tests.

Try this link on greed and capitalism, written by a Christian.

There are roughly 1600 insurance companies in the United States, yet in my state of PA, there are only two… TWO choices for those without insurance provided by their employer…

“Do nothing” is a completely absurd conclusion to reach concerning adding competition in the insurance industry.

Insurance companies aren't going to fix the problem! Good grief!

Exactly. We seem to be stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea — with the government cartels protecting both the health insurance monopoly cartel and the pharmacy cartels.

This isn't the free market. This is a sort of socialism. Both Repub “conservatives” and Dem “progressives” have built these cartels.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by sojourners: Evil Insurance Company or Evil Health-Care System? http://bit.ly/lo67Y…

i'm merely looking at the logic here. to me, it looks like a fallacy of composition. i think there are better ways to argue non-profit status, but this is utterly unconvincing.

God's economic system doesn't work like capitalism, and in fact this kind of capitalism doesn't work like capitalism. I don't believe that people's health should be bought and sold on the open market any more than their bodies or their souls. Even if you believe it's appropriate, you cannot argue the fact that the US pays more for health care than any other nation and has a WHO #37 ranking to show for it. We can't just tweak the current healthcare system. It isn't about health; it doesn't care; and it isn't a system. We have a disease state management industry, and it needs a complete overhaul. Thank you very much.

Why not turn firefighting into a for-profit activity? If you couldn't afford to pay, then sorry but your place burns. Take out insurance, prepare your property, but don't expect others to put our your fireys for free. And once the profit motive comes along, then companies will have a real incentive to invest in new and better firefighting technologies as well as make returns for their shareholders. We could cut out all of the political and bureaucratic crap by going private. And a bit of competition adds even more incentive to do better, so we could deregulate the market to allow several competing brigades to show up.

This would be great. I'm volunteer firefighter and this could be a nice source of extra cash instead of doing it all for free (in Australia, nearly every rural firefighter is a volunteer).

Who will join me in this great reform?

Just because health care and access to food are basic rights to life: this doesn't necessarily mean that having government directly provide these needs for life is the most efficient way to provide for these rights to life.

I don't know if you've ever had to apply for food stamps. I wouldn't wish this process on my worst enemies. Take it from me, it's a horrible process. I would much rather have private agencies receive 100% tax breaks and deductions to provide these services.

For that matter, applying for Medicaid is just as awful as applying for food stamps.