Quote:
Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant
In a free market, you get charged extra for being desperate. If you are sick and dying, the free market demands that you give them all your money and get into debt to survive. After all, they want to charge as much as you are willing to pay. And if they can clean you out in the process because you are not willing to "not live", that's your bad luck.
The wonderful hand of the market. Maximising profit one sick person at a time.
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But it's not really a free market. In an ideal free market a buyer have as much power as the seller, as the buyer would have the choice to find a cheaper seller if the price is too high.
But that doesn't really apply to the healthcare system, where a buyer have little to no choice or any power - people generally don't incur diseases or injuries willingly, and so when they DO need to cross paths with the healthcare system, they are forced buyers in that they have no other choice like you said. You can't very well tell the EMT that this hospital's ER is too expensive while you're unconscious and bleeding out after a car accident for example.