Paul Krugman¹ is obsessed with health care. He wants every American to be guaranteed health care, no matter what the cost. He never distinguishes between health problems that are brought on by bad decisions (to smoke, to drink alcohol, to eat meat, to refrain from exercising, to engage in dangerous activities, &c) and those that are the result of bad luck. This is a morally significant distinction. Why does he ignore it? Another thing he never addresses is the incentive effect of guaranteed health care. If others are paying for my health care, what incentive do I have to keep costs down? Won't people use far more health services than they would be willing to pay for, and won't that drive the cost of health care through the roof? Krugman never addresses these questions. He just takes it for granted that everyone has a right to health care for any and every ailment. Call it No-Fault Medicine.
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¹"Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults" (Daniel Okrent, "13 Things I Meant to Write About but Never Did," The New York Times, 22 May 2005).
