My friend Wendy is DEAD: she couldn't buy broccoli

[TheKentuckian]

36. We are far down the rabbithole that even the most emotional advocate

percieves the problem as being unable to "buy healthcare in this country" rather than this beloved friend having the RIGH to healthcare in this country.

The writer cannot escape the paradigm of life being a commodity any more than Scalia can, she just thinks that all of those who can afford it should be able to buy it. Scalia wants insurance only as a means for companies to extract money from "the small people" that are healthy mostly for the illusion of security and the writer wants the asserted purpose to actual, which means those with the means should get coverage, and coverage should translate to care.

Both arguments only vary in levels of insanity because both insist that we are discussing a rational market, when we are not and cannot be. No one knows what they need, what they want are for their needs to be met, and need will determine quantities.

We now have an argument where "the good guys" are almost as off track as "the bad guys" but are less callous and cruel on an individual by individual level but are just as commited to the underlying batshit crazy structures in the health system and both percieve healthcare as a commodity to profit from, and both insist that a predatory cartel be the gatekeeper for access to care.

The underlying commitment to the way we conduct these affairs is strong on both sides with each really wanting to make small adjustments one making it just a little more wild west to increase profits and reduce premium costs and the other essentially just wanting to have their money taken if they are without coverage.
The difference is indeed monumental, but neither is honest or engaged in undoing a set of problems that create huge amounts of entropy well beyond insurance markets or even healthcare.

No amount of money should be buying healthcare, it should be a right and anything that establishes a responsibility rather than a right isn't going in the correct heading.