There was a restaurant charging $20 for dinner. The food was good and the service was friendly so the crowds came. But a few people walked out without paying. The owners decided that rather than confronting those who didn’t pay and having an ugly scene, they would just add a couple of dollars to all the bills. They thought they might be helping people who were a little short on money. So as the price rose, more who had been paying found the price too high and skipped out. Others heard that they could eat free and piled in to take advantage of the policy.
Eventually the price rose to $50 for what they had been paying only $20. Some of the most loyal customers continued to pay, even ones who realized that they were paying for others. The food was good enough and they didn’t mind sharing. But eventually it became too much for even them. So at some point, no one was paying. The owners continued for as long as they could but they eventually ran out of money and had to close. If just a few people didn’t pay, it could have worked. But when more and more new people who couldn’t or wouldn’t pay arrived, it was doomed.
This may seem preposterous on the face of it but it is the
way we run medical care in this country.
Many come to hospitals for service they can’t pay for. No doubt many have legitimate ailments and no
money. Hospitals provide service either
by their own policy to support the public good or as required by law in some
cases. But anything can be ruined by
such policies.
We can’t wait until a sick person shows up at the hospital and just say that since they don’t have any money and don’t have time to raise money, that the hospital will just have to provide whatever service they need and add the cost of their service to the bills of others. Since this happens every day, we need to decide how to handle it instead of just sweeping it under the rug. Now that President Obama is talking about providing this service to everybody, it is time we all took a long look. Exactly how is he going to pay for it? He is saying that just raising taxes a little bit on the rich, it will work out. If this were really likely, somebody else would have layed out such a plan long ago. What is likely is incredible cost increases beyond any imaginable tax increase if the “all you can eat” plan is implemented.
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