five true things

Murder is very wrong. Killing a health care CEO in protest against the inequities of the American health-care system is pointless and counterproductive. American insurance companies regularly refuse to meet the terms of their contracts with their customers, and consider themselves justified in such refusals because they are “maximizing value for shareholders.” Here’s a case that’s extreme in some respects but typical of the procedural logic. Here’s a less dramatic example from my own experience. American laws do not do enough to protect customers from corrupt insurance companies. Changing from a for-profit system to a single-payer system will not in itself fix anything. As Kevin Williamson has written, “If Americans as individuals and families cannot afford to pay for routine health care, then how the hell are Americans as one big indiscriminate national lump supposed to afford paying for routine health care? If nobody can afford it, then how can everybody afford it?” 

All of these things are true, and by affirming or denying one you are saying absolutely nothing about any of the others. Distinguo!