Take, for instance, the case of a hospital in Guelph, Ontario that has decided to admit animals for CT scans. They are motivated by profit, charging the pet's owners $300 per visit for access to the machines. At the same time, people like Greg Moulton, who was suffering from excruciating headaches, were on a two-month waiting list to use the same machine. In Canada, however, it is illegal for an individual to pay out of his or her own pocket for medical expenses covered under the government-controlled plan -- that would be unfair after all -- so he had to wait. A dog, however, could use the same medical technology immediately (Matthews 41).
This situation has essentially put the value of the life of a human being lower than that of a dog, or any other animal for that matter. The problem is that the doctors are forced, by law, to only provide an MRI at the scheduled times for the people on the waiting lists. A person cannot go in unscheduled to get the procedure done, but an animal can. This is an egregious violation of the basic human right to life, and it has been perpetrated by the government of Canada.
Not only does the free market allow for improvements in technologies, but it also breeds innovation in the way that healthcare is distributed. One example of this can been seen in the idea of “boutique” medicine that has been appearing in the United States. In this healthcare model, patients agree to pay primary-care physicians an annual fee. In return, these doctors agree to be available on a 24/7 basis, while limiting the number of patients they will have. The fee can also cover other expenses such as medication, diagnostic testing, and exams, along with the guaranteed easy access (Bailey).
Another one of these innovations can be seen in the idea of SimpleCare, which is also becoming popular in the United States. In this program, patients agree to pay doctors in full on the spot. This drastically cuts out paperwork that would normally be needed to send to insurance companies, or government agencies in the case of Universal Healthcare. This reduction of paperwork allows the doctors to cut spending by not needing to hire as many secretaries or other individuals to handle the paperwork. This process has allowed the doctors to cut their prices by 30 to 50 percent (Bailey). These organizations would likely be illegal if there were more government control in the healthcare market.
Innovations are already occurring in the United States where there is restricted free market in healthcare. In places like the United Kingdom and Canada, where there is more government control of the industry, many of these innovations are less likely to occur. In fact, in most countries with a typical national healthcare plan, many of these advancements would actually be illegal. It is important to note, however, that the United States is not a complete free market. Only when the market is allowed to operate without restrictions, such as those from the FDA and the ERISA law, will we see true innovation in healthcare.
Quality of Care
Let's, once again, look at the case of government-run grocery insurance. Under that program, most people would be taking the more expensive food items, like prime rib and lobster, instead of ground beef and canned tuna. This would cause an artificial demand for those products, which would inevitably lead to a shortage due to an inability to keep up production. This shortage would lead to long waiting lines for those expensive and rare foods.
Imagine planning a large dinner party, that is going to take place in one week, but the waiting time for one of the menu items is nearly thirty weeks. What recourse could be taken to obtain that food? The black market could be looked at, but that can always be dangerous and it can never be known whether or not you are getting what you asked for. A more logical solution might be paying a visit to a neighboring country that does not have government-funded grocery insurance to purchase the food, at full price, in a free market environment.
Why is it that people from all over the world come to the United States when they need major medical operations? The above scenario answers this question quite clearly. In countries that have one form of Socialized Medicine or another there are often long waiting lines for treatment. In Great Britain, for example, 900,000 people are waiting for admission to government run hospitals at any given time. In Sweden, there is a twenty-five week waiting period for heart surgery, and a one-year waiting list for hip replacement surgery. Twenty-five weeks is a long time to wait for a heart, and if someone on that list has enough money to pay for the surgery on their own, then they are likely to come to the United States, the only developed nation with a semblance of free market medicine, to get the procedure done (Cannon). Otherwise, they might just die waiting.
