Of course the profit motive belongs in health care

A friend of mine is dead set on government-provided health care. And he’s spending a lot of time and money pushing for a single payer system over any system with a profit motive.

I find this astonishing. I don’t understand the attraction to this issue.

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My friend says the profit motive does not belong in health care. But the profit motive is not the only motive that can be used nefariously.

What comes from profit and money? You can pursue things that really matter. And you employ other people. You can use the power that money and profit brings for good.

Removing the profit motive from health care doesn’t remove bad people, however. And the profit motive is faster to punish bad behavior. Companies who do bad things to people are pretty quickly run out of business, unless they partner with government; and then they really cozy up to government.

The power motive that resides in government is very slow to punish. When you don’t have talents and get your power through inertia, you are less willing to give that power up and you would do anything to keep it.

As always, please listen to the full audio clip for complete context.