To: skinowski who wrote (374787 ) 7/25/2010 3:13:14 AM From: Maurice Winn 2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 794346 It depends on the situation: <speaking about those life and death gatekeepers - If the 80 year old geezer in your example is willing to contribute his own 10K for that service, would he be allowed to do so, under your system? Or would it be, paraphrasing, a case of "Money can't buy me life.... " > In many situations, money works just fine. For example elective surgical procedures can be paid for with cash on the barrel head and surgeons will do the work using the preferred method. I had expensive lapyroscopic surgery for a hernia. Helengrad Medical Services would have made me wait years [or maybe forever - I don't know] and would have done the old cut open and stitch up method with longer recovery. Grandson [aged 3] also got a hernia about 4 months before [odd statistics there - me getting one not much later] and under the Helengrad system, he was in and treated promptly. One can buy cat scans and all sorts of services with cash and not have to wait at all. But if it comes to something like a kidney, or liver or heart/lung transplant, the doctors' cartel decides who is allowed treatment and who has to die. Of course the old geezer is not the lucky recipient. The youngster gets the kidney, the oldie on dialysis goes down the gurgler. There is of course a huge surplus of kidneys, but because it's illegal to price them properly, the Helengrad system works like the USSR - there are shortages, for no good reason. If people could sell a kidney at market prices, and use some of that money to buy an insurance policy in case they in turn need a kidney transplant, there would be plenty of kidneys to go around and those providing the service could make lots of money [the surgeons, nurses, hospitals, politicians and lawyers already make heaps of money from the process, it's just the donor who is cut out of the looting - the surgeons already sell the few available gifted kidneys for what the market will bear though that price is hidden within the arcane allocation kleptocratic processes]. In other things, such as fancy new treatments, such as for lymphoma, I had it explained to me that I would not be able to buy Rituxan for our son with lymphoma because it wouldn't be ethical for him to get treatment simply because of having money available while somebody in the next bed could not have the same treatment though they would have equal need. So there is not just Death Panel allocation of Helengrad's tax money, there is also banning of kidneys and other parts sale, not to mention it's illegal to compete with the cartel by offering for example skin cancer treatment [pretty easy stuff but good cash flow for them], and there is also the banning of good [but expensive] treatments so that everyone suffers the lowest common denominator. State-run "health" involves a lot of unnecessary death and suffering. Mqurice