Saturday, March 1, 2008

What is more just: rationing health care based upon bureaucratic decisions or ability to pay

What is more just: rationing health care based upon bureaucratic decisions or ability to pay?
Both socialzed and free market health care ration health care. In socialized health care, care is rationed based upon bureaucratic decisions. In "free market" health care, care is rationed based upon the ability of the person to pay. Which is more just? Which is more just for a child?
Politics - 2 Answers
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1 :
Ability to pay especially since if push comes to shove and you get rushed to the ER you will get taken care of but the bureaucrat won't give a darn about it- you're just a number
2 :
Depends on the perspective. The "socialized" (please use in quotation marks) perspective is that users of health care are the community as a whole; thus, 'just' is defined as minimizing the losing individuals. "Free market's" views are that the users are individuals or groups of individuals; thus, 'just' is defined as maximizing the number of individuals 'satisfied.' From both common political and ethical perspective, a child is often unable to contribute to the discussion of 'individuals to be lost' in "socialized health care" or 'user satisfaction' in the "free market." Given the assumptions that pediatric care is satisfactory for most children, "socialized health care" is more just because the intrinsic cost-of-life-saved would then be higher even though some children would fall through the cracks. HOWEVER, given the assumption above and also that the income difference between the richest and poorest people is minimal, the "free market" is more just because parents can decide what is most 'satisfactory' without too much undue financial burden.

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