Health care is a complex system

I also wanted to add that a lot of people seem to have a fear that the government would be denying care. Does the government order the police department NOT to investigate a rape or a mugging because it's "too expensive"? No. Every crime gets investigated. We have Cold Case files too! Crimes that happened 20 years ago and were never solved -- the government PAYS people to keep investigating those cases. What about fire and emergency rescue? Does the government order houses to burn to the ground because it's too expensive to put them out? Nope. What about if you get in a car accident and need the jaws of life to get you out? Has there ever been a single case of the government ordering a fire department to let someone burn to death because the cost of sending out firefighters was too expensive. Nope. The same level of service would exist with single payer healthcare. We don't "ration" police services. We don't "ration" fire and rescue services. We don't "ration" the library (unless all three copies of the book you want to read for free happen to be checked out).

"Illness" is not a consumer product that can be regulated in a free market. Just like "crime" isn't in any way, shape or form a "consumer product" that can benefit from capitalism. You can't "mass produce safety" in order to lower costs nor can citizens "shop" for what crime they will be vicitms of. Healthcare must be treated in the exact same way. Patients cannot pick WHAT illnesses they will get, nor can they pick WHEN they will get these illnesses. Hospitals are in the exact same bind because they are not stores. They can't mass produce "healthcare" to drive down costs nor can they refuse treatement (expensive emergency treatment) to "customers" who can't repay. Hospitals can't have "sales" on MRI's because they have no control over the ebb and flow of illness and injury that comes in on any given day. Taxes pay for police protection because "crime" is not a "consumer good." Taxes pay for fire and emergency rescue services because accidents and fire aren't "consumer goods." Taxes NEED to pay for healthcare because nothing (absolutely nothing) about healthcare can be regulated by capitalism. Think about it, a key component of free market capitalism is competition and choice. Can hospitals really "compete" with each other in any meaningful way? Can Hospital X "compete" with Hospital Y by having a fire sale on prostate surgeries? No. Hospitals can't control what types of illnesses come through the door. Can patients CHOOSE what illnesses to get, WHEN they can afford to get them or where they will be when the illness hits (as in, "I will have my heart attack in December near my perferred provider as opposed to on vacation in Oklahoma nearst a hospital that in not in my insurance network") We need to understand that lifesaving chemotherapy isn't a "consumer choice" anymore than "cancer" is a consumer choice -- anymore than being mugges or carjacked is a consumer choice.