by Karl Denninger, Market Ticker:

Yet another story in the press:

Lee-Ellen Macon had beaten breast cancer once.

So when she went to the doctor this spring with what she thought was a slight thyroid issue, and instead received a stage IV cancer recurrence diagnosis, she was terrified.

“That’s the worst cancer you can have,” said Macon, 57. “Hardly anybody can recover from that.”

Almost as scary was Macon’s subsequent discovery: Her out-of-network deductible was $4,000.

It shouldn’t take $4,000 to find out that you have cancer, or what stage it is in.  It should cost $400.

In a free market economic system for medical care, where everyone has to post a price and everyone is charged the same amount of money for the same good or service, just like the corner gas station, grocery store and WalMart, that is what it would cost.

The fact of the matter is that there’s likely nothing she can do, but if she wants to try, that’s up to her.

But it is profoundly evil, to the point that society should contemplate putting people who do this into plastic chippers feet first, to prey on those who are deathly ill by refusing to quote them a price or charging them a different, higher price than the next person who shows up with the same malady but has “better” or “government” coverage.

We recognize in virtually all cases that predatory pricing aimed at those who can’t negotiate due to their circumstances (e.g. after a hurricane) is both morally wrong and criminally wrong.

There are libertarian purists who argue against this — that such laws shouldn’t exist because those who prepare should be able to benefit from preparation and that in fact $10 for a bottle of water is better than no water at all.  There’s an argument to be made for this in the case of a hurricane where you have days worth of warning, but there is no argument for it when you’re flat on your back due to a car wreck that you had no means to forecast nor any way to control, nor were you able to direct where you were taken or comparison shop.  Likewise while you can control in some cases the risk of cancer you cannot control if you actually get cancer.

“Medicare for all” doesn’t solve this.  But my short-and-sweet bill found here, or it’s longer and more-expansive version, which covers those with no money or “insurance” with a true backstop, does.

Pick one.  Short and simple or the longer and more-expansive.

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