The way that American healthcare has been debated has failed to resolve the problems and deliver the values that Americans face in their pursuit of health. In this episode, Reinier Schuur and Colleen Smith expose what is wrong with the American healthcare debate and present a roadmap for rethinking and changing it.
The Myth of a Free Market in American Healthcare
American healthcare is not a free market and never has been. Why? Some economists have argued that healthcare cannot be sold on a free market like other goods and services. But the idea that healthcare should be ‘above the market’ predates modern economics. In the second episode in our series on ‘Rethinking American Medicine’, Drs. Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur expose why the early American medical profession, through the AMA, prevented doctors, patients, and businessmen from developing a mature free market in American healthcare.
The Socialization of American Healthcare
In this episode of Rethinking American Healthcare, Drs. Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur expose how American healthcare has been socialized from its very inception and discuss how liberating American healthcare requires Americans to rethink and reclaim freedom in medicine.
The Profit Motive and Loss of Freedom in Medicine
The profit motive is often blamed as the reason for why medical professionals have lost their freedom to practice medicine as they see fit in American healthcare. In this episode of rethinking American healthcare, Drs. Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur argue that the exact opposite is the case; medical professionals have lost their freedom to practice precisely because they are not free to pursue profits as they see fit.
Who will save American healthcare?
Healthcare reform is back in the national spotlight. But what are the prospects that the broken American healthcare system will be reformed in a way that not only preserves the little freedom that remains within it, but actually expands it? In this episode Reinier Schuur, Colleen Smith, and Jared Rhoads expose the shortcoming of both the progressive and conservative approaches to reforming American healthcare and present their pro-freedom alternative.
Moving beyond Obamacare’s false promise
A real alternative to the ACA enhanced subsidies, let alone Obamacare itself, remains elusive. Why? In this episode we expose how Obamacare represents a failure to move beyond the false promise of having insurance pay for most of healthcare while preserving our freedom. To develop a real alternative to Obamacare requires fully embracing freedom as our moral ideal.
The real injustice of unaffordable healthcare
The un-affordability of healthcare is not merely an economic issue, but an issue of justice and what we have a right to in healthcare. In this episode, Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur argue that the view that we have a right to healthcare without consideration of cost is unjust and leads to its un-affordability. What we do have a right to is the freedom to have a relationship with doctors that does consider cost, which justly rewards doctors and drives down costs.
