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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Credentials, State vs. private
Message-ID: <756@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Sep-85 16:36:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.756
Posted: Mon Sep 16 16:36:33 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Sep-85 00:37:01 EDT
References: <1208@ihlpg.UUCP> <4297@alice.UUCP> <750@cybvax0.UUCP> <568@x.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 44
Summary: 

In article <568@x.UUCP> wjr@x.UUCP (STella Calvert) writes:
> No, no, no!  I will be carrying (probably on the back of my medicalert
> necklace) a toll-free number to notify my medicare plan that I am in need of
> service.  That plan will have some qualified (by my standards) personnel on
> the scene as soon after I call (or you as my agent) as I am willing to pay
> for.  Response time is important.  So is quality of care.  I'll pay for both,
> and make it easy (dial 1 100 MED HELP) for you to carry out my wishes.  But I
> will have chosen the flavor of medical care I want before I need it.  If you
> find me without my tag, I will possibly suffer for my error as you take me to
> the brand of doctor you think best, so be assured, I will be wearing that tag.

If you are rich enough to afford that sort of medical service, you can buy it
right now.  The only thing that might make it slightly more expensive is
that you still need real doctors.

People who can't afford high medical premiums (many plans cost about $2000 a
year) will still have difficulty.

Assuming a real libertaria, then your flavor of medicine is quite likely to be
Dr. Smith's Astrological Aura Manipulation.  Once you remove medicine and
medical practice from regulation, you end up with the full spectrum of
snake oil and other fraud, only now with better advertising.  Look at all
the people who use fraudulent (unregulated and sometimes lethal) diet
plans.  Advertising dollars generate much better profits than research or
training dollars, and advertising reaches a much larger audience than product
comparisons.  If you were brought up within a libertaria, bombarded with
propaganda and counterpropaganda, with no statistics you could trust,
you would probably pick a popular, well advertised quackery.  After all,
it would probably be cheaper than the best medicine.  Kidney machines too
expensive?  Oh, then they're bad for the aura.  Pills cheap?  They brighten
the aura.  And let's not forget the addictive "health" prescriptions,
whose ingredients need not be divulged.  But wait, you need psychic
surgery for your muffler bearing (oops, that was the "doctor"'s previous
employment.)
 
> I will also be paying, in my premiums, for the right to call my plan if I
> encounter a John Doe who does not appear to have medical coverage.

Very generous of you.  I'm sure that your provider will provide enough
disincentives to reign your generosity in, and thus prevent your
distribution of medical services to everyone in libertaria.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh