That's not true. Healthcare has always been expensive. Even before regulations. Hundreds, even thousands of years back. The same regulations you're whining about made snake-oils illegal and other quacks from practicing on people who don't know better. The good old days of unregulated healthcare... Google "doctors agree cigarette" and look at the Images. See all those ads. Those ads that cigs are good for your health and infants. Yea...

Back when people thought that healthcare should not be regulated.

Now, there's a lot of fuckery in the healthcare industry. A lot. Both, business side and gov side. Both are to blame. But just saying regulation is flat out bad. That's stupid. There are many issues and each have to be addressed.

Not just a one MAGIC PILL solution.

False, healthcare is a human right

Hot dog, there's a cheaper ER 30 minutes from here!

I can't imagine a human right more fundamental than health care. What good is freedom of speech or assembly or trade to a dead person?

Patients in distress are usually not very able to make distinctions between hospitals based on pricing or really any other factor apart from perhaps proximity. This key point seems to not be addressed by any of the standard libertarian takes.

Edit: Also, I grew up in a country (India) where healthcare was definitely part of the market economy. And what that meant (and still does) was that people with money get high quality immediate care, and those without get shafted. That's what the market does to healthcare.

> False. Healthcare is not a human right, but the insane inflation of healthcare costs would be avoided by removing a large portion of the regulation surrounding it.

....So it can only be for the rich.

Insurance is simple - you have a group pool their risk together so that everyone's protected.

Yet, when we try to discuss making an insurance pool the size of the country, for everyone, people like you go all "not a right".

When I see "not a right", I read into it as "Fuck you I got mine".. when there is plenty to go around for everyone.

> If hospitals actually had to compete to get patients, based on affordability, among other factors, healthcare would be far cheaper

Citation needed: prices are NOT linked to how much thing is, but how much the market will bear. Stating falsehoods to cover up your intent is disgusting. We know how c(r)apitalism works. We're rejecting that. Tried it, didn't work. Reiterating for better.

> private charity/need-sharing would take the place of insurance.

Uh huh. So non-christians need not apply? I know how this plays out... This is a citizenry issue, for the whole country. And you end up wanting to make it a fractured "small group" issue. People fall in cracks, and you don't care. Some "mythical" group will fix it.