Should healthcare be free, and should doctors get their salary from the government instead?
In the United States, the VA (Veteran’s Administration, which takes care of military veterans) is what you describe, with doctors being salaried, and they get very good care, though the occasional lapse becomes big news. Chebrew completely overlooks the fact that care is currently rationed by insurance companies and it is functionally rationed by some people having insurance and some people not having it. The problem with providing free care only when someone’s life is in danger, which is how it works in the US for most people without insurance because they can go to an emergency room but can’t get to a doctor otherwise, is that people get very sick, and with most diseases it is cheaper to prevent the person from getting very sick than it is to treat them once they get very sick. The debate here isn’t driven by fairness. It is driven by fear of government and self-righteous talk about personal responsibiliy. The “funny” part is that most people love Medicare. I love the protest signs,
