I find it intriguing that no one is asking this question: why, when doctors choose to give away their services, are the rest of us forced to pay for their largess?
The Regan era law requiring ERs to treat the uninsured sure doesn't help. But that law feeds upon the medical profession's ethic that drives docs to give free medical service to those who can't pay. I'm not saying they shouldn't treat people who can't pay. But if one of my advertisers (I sell ad space for Newsweek Daily Beast) asked for an ad in the magazine but said they didn't have the money to pay, I'm fairly sure management wouldn't raise every other advertisers' rates by 1% to cover the cost.
Advertising isn't healthcare. But somewhere along the line docs who are duty-bound to give away their services successfully passed the buck to me and everyone else who pays for health insurance. Let's ask the medical profession to back up their ethics with action. Rather than forcing consumers to buy health insurance let's force medical accreditation boards to allocate X% of doctors' time to serve the uninsured. Remember Northern Exposure? Kinda like that. But on a national scale.
With the exception of legal defense against a criminal charge, I can think of no other profession in which services provided for those who can't pay are underwritten by everyone else who can pay. Since healthcare is a unique service with limited price elasticity, a universal potential market, and morally freighted in every dimension, it has to be treated differently than other markets. Turning our legislative guns to the root of the problem -- doctors who have to give away their service -- will lead us to a more just and effective solution.
