Thomas Sowell argues in a recent series of columns that price and cost are not the same thing. (Link goes to the first article.) Under the proposed monstrosity of a medical care bill, bureaucrats would set the price of care, not the cost. The price of a commodity, such as medical care, only matters if that commodity is available.
What do you suppose would happen if the government mandated that doctors' salaries be reduced by 90%, as in the case of corporate CEOs? My guess is that not very many people would want to be doctors. The price of medical care would be reduced, but it would not matter, since you would never get to see a doctor anyway. The cost, then, is that you just have to suck it up and hope that your cancer goes away on its own.
The rest of Dr. Sowell's articles are here: linky linky
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1 comment:
Great point. If limited medical resources are not rationed based on price, then they have to be rationed some other way (waiting lists, denial of care, etc.).
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