What Makes Health Care Different?,

Three points about why people are adverse to paying for health care.

1. Paying for health care is like paying for sex. People want healing to come as a gift, and paying for it demeans its value.

2. People who need health care are suffering. When someone is suffering, to compound their suffering by demanding payment feels immoral. I have noted the similarities with usury--which was deemed morally repugnant because back in the day the borrower was likely somebody who was having trouble feeding his family, not somebody who was trying to develop a fancy shopping mall.

3. Robin's view is that health care is something we want to give to others. It isn't so much whether your terminally ill grandmother wants hip surgery or not. You want her to have the best quality of life possible in what little time remains. Robin would say that, even more important, you want to signal to her and to others that you want this.

What Makes Health Care Different?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty