I was going by the simple, perhaps overly so, definition of profit – namely that profit = income – outlays.

My point is that most people “profit” from what they do, and having people “profit” from providing medical services is no more “wrong” than people providing sexual services, running restaurants, smuggling or painting.

After all what are profits? They are really the taking of some factors of production and combining them in a way that results in something that is more valuable than the sum of the uncombined factors.

Should we make the medical professions ones where value is withdrawn from society? The very notion is absurd!

Does this mean that doctors should work for no pay?

Should nurses work for free? After all, their wages represent “profit”.”

Tarran – Are wages technically considered “profit?” Is there the “profit” element existing, in the providing of health care in Peoples Republic of China, or in the Workers Paradise of Cuba? Yet doctors in both China and Cuba are paid wages in exchange for their labor, are they not?

David, those home appendectomy kits shouldn’t be a problem. You just need to read the directions. “Just lay still Suzy – I’m sure its got to be one of these organs.” I’m more daunted by the thought of trying to figure out how to assemble that Deluxe Ronco Home Chemotherapy and Radiation Treatment Set, I’ll probably need to buy in anticipation of being “rationed out” of the “Homeland People’s Medical Agency” when I’m old and sick. And you think assembling a propane Gas grill or a swingset is tough?

Does this mean that doctors should work for no pay?

Should nurses work for free?

After all, their wages represent “profit”.

I have to correct you when you say that if you don’t like your health insurance you can take your business elsewhere. It’s what we *should* have. In our current system, where health coverage is irrationally tied to employment, you can’t. Remember, most Americans have health care provided by their employers or the government. That’s part of the reason we have a health care crisis.

Folks like Lawrence who want the government to step in don’t understand the fundamental flaw in our health care system. ObamaCare is like shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic and not addressing the big gaping hole in the side. The system will still sink, people will still suffer and die.

We need a health care system that works for, and answers to, consumers. We have a system that answers to employers and government. At its core, the health crisis really is that simple.

If you don’t think the public school system is doing a good job, you can homeschool your children relatively inexpensively. Unfortunately, it’d be much more difficult to do homehealthcare in the same way. Oh, little Suzy has appendicitis. I guess Mom will do the operation on the dining room table…

We’re screwed if this thing passes.

With private healthcare, if you think your insurer is making too much profit from the premiums you pay, YOU CAN TAKE YOUR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE. If enough people feel this way, the company soon finds itself losing money–it’s a self-correcting system.

The purpose of business–ANY BUSINESS–is to make a profit. PERIOD.

First, who’s paying you and how much?

Second, there’s a difference between not turning people away from emergency rooms and paying the tab when they can’t and setting out to deliberately crowd non-government health care out of the market. Public education has crowded private education into a minority position in the market, and cases like that above demonstrate the kind of abuses that become possible when a government entity controls 80% of an economic sector.

You say a public option would give the uninsured a chance to see a doctor before they become ER material. You’re absolutely wrong. They might see a doctor, but they will wait for serious treatment because government health care uses queues to ration care. In addition, you will have 120 million more folks who will now have their care rationed in this manner who will now be more likely to need care in an ER because of extended wait times. For a good example of this at work, see Britain’s National Health Service.

The tragedy of health care is that patients are treated little better than livestock because the system is bought and paid for by employers and the government, not patients. Until doctors, hospitals, and insurers work for consumers, not employers or the government, the system will continue to be broken. ObamaCare does nothing to address this fundamental fact.

The tragedy of private insurance is the profit the insurers make at the expense of the public. No one should be making a profit on health care!