At a glance: Supporting others with their health is a form of voluntary kindness which aligns with the Moral Principle. Entitlement to healthcare at the involuntary expense of others breaches the Legal Principle. A free choice healthcare system would be cheaper overall versus the status-quo.
Applying the Aspirational Values
- Choosing to support another person with their healthcare is an extraordinary act of voluntary kindness that aligns with the Aspirational Values.
Applying the Legal Principle
- Live and Let Live differentiates morality from the law and, as such, does not recognize any ārightā that requires aggressing against others - such rights are called positive rights. Forcing people to pay for other peopleās healthcare is therefore a violation of the Legal Principle.
- There is no shortage of claims that some people assert to live at the expense of others. All such claims require violating the Legal Principle. Two wrongs never make a right.
Healthcare affordability and quality
- Healthcare affordability would improve in a free-choice healthcare system vs a state-monopolized healthcare system. The US healthcare system is not free-choice, but has hundreds of thousands of laws and regulations that limit supply, suppress innovation, and therefore increase costs and worsen outcomes. The UKās NHS is free at the point of use; unsurprisingly, demand exceeds supply, and wait times can be unconscionably lengthy.
- Removing the numerous artificial constraints (regulations) within the healthcare system that donāt align with the Legal Principle would allow a āfree-choiceā healthcare system to flourish. With providers and consumers of healthcare then able to act freely according to their will, the quality and supply of care would increase, improving the affordability of care. The excess regulations and distortions to market pricing of incumbent healthcare systems have led to decades of rising healthcare costs with no end in sight.
- In a free society, standards of living also rise, meaning greater disposable income to spend on healthcare. The dual impact of lower healthcare costs and greater disposable income would mean many more people can afford healthcare. For those who cannot afford it, there are many voluntary ways we can help those less fortunate than ourselves.
Bad actors
- Adherence to the Legal Principle, which includes prohibitions against involuntary physical harm, substantial risk of harm, and fraud, would be a superior deterrence against bad actors than the complex web of misaligned incentives in healthcare systems today.