Taco Stand Health Clinics

I lived in Costa Rica for several years.  The hospitals  and clinics were socialized.  I never experienced them because the services were accessible only to Costa Rican residents.  The government could not afford the ex-pat bums and Nicaraguans, so they had to ration services to residence only.

The pharmacy on the other hand was my life saver.  It was voluntary trade, quick and cheap.  A lot of doctors chose to work at pharmacies and practice from there.  You go up and explain your condition.  They tell you about the medicine and you leave paying $15 or so.  I am not speaking of advanced medicine here.  I’m speaking about little things that are common, like birth control, bot fly poison, malaria pills and antibiotics.

I enjoyed this freedom very much.  It was so simple and cheap compared to our highly regulated system.

Our regulations force our medical industry to treat us in such a manner that makes it very expensive for simple procedures like broken arms and stomach parasites.  Perhaps if those common procedures were deregulated, poor people could actually afford minimal care.

There have always been poor man’s doctors.  Only now they have to spend money and time traveling to remote villages to set up shanty clinics.  The vets take care of dogs and horses across the dusty road from a man getting his rotten teeth pulled out.  It can be quite romantic, but then a sharp breeze of cow urine reminds everyone of the sanitary conditions and the reality of the situation.  My sarcasm is not aimed the doctors who travel and provide care.   The sarcasm is aimed at the hypocrisy of our ridiculous regulatory framework that stifles any chance the poor have to gain minimal health care.  Doctors without boarders are heroes abroad, but the same practice in North America would be criminal.

Supporters of regulation claim that they ensure quality health care.  The system is not so simple.  Regulations also prohibit services that have value for many people.

Regulations tend to insure a certain level of quality, but they do so by eliminating practices deemed to be inferior.  Shanty clinics and alternative medicines are forced to improve their quality through costly measures and licensing. This causes prices to rise and eliminates the concept of a poor man’s doctor.   So in effect, the quality of average care is increased not by increasing the quality of care, but by eliminating the lower rungs of care.  Regulations eliminate a niche in the health care industry that many people would benefit from.

If regualtions were eventualy reduced and replaced by an accessible and efficient court system dedicated to the protection of individual rights, the diversity and price range range of care would expand to include all patients.   Doctors should be free to run their clinics in a manner appropriate to their goals and circumstances.  Sometimes they might not be clean enough for Jane, but if it is all John can afford, Jane should not prohibit John from using the service.  Deregulation does not mean fraud and malpractice should be accepted.  Criminals should always be punished in a court of law.