Health Care in America; Shoplifting for Cancer Treatment

The free market health care system we have right now is the best in the world, right?

Bake sales, car washes and fund drives for a neighbors sick child are all great ways to pay for treatment.

Even shoplifting, if you can get away with it, can save your life. Just don’t get caught like the woman below:

MountPleasant Patch: Woman Accused of Stealing Baby Formula to Sell, Pay for Cancer Meds: A Racine woman was charged with one misdemeanor count of retail theft and a felony count of bail jumping, repeater. If convicted, she faces up to six years, nine months in prison and/or up to $10,500 in fines. (She) admitted to police that she took the baby formula to help her pay for her cancer medications. Officers say the defendant told them she didn't want to ask her family for the money, and this was the first time she was stealing formula. Bolton was out on probation from a retail theft charge last November.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is how the free market works, even though it doesn't turn out well for some.

Politicians like Paul Ryan want to remove the remaining regulations for basic care so we can see what happens next. What fun. Will Ayn Rand be proven right? Gosh I hope so. 

But free market competition might have a down side. Competition will crash prices and profits, and make R&D so prohibitive that the U.S. system will tank in the process.  But that’s only the first stage; big health care providers will sweep out the failures or buy them up, corner the market, and start making huge profits again. But they know that, right?