Uncommon Commentary #64

Access to health services indeed ought to be universal, but not socialized. I propose that the care of the ill be restored to those to whom it was entrusted originally: the religious. Mediæval hospitals were ministries, which relied upon not fees but donations; naturally, medicine has changed considerably since the Middle Ages (although even the use of leeches and that of maggots are making a comeback), but, even in this country, there is still at least one medical institution (the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) that qualifies as charitable, and so I'll bet that the rest could also survive without charging their patients.