> And what would an anarchist health care finance system look like?
> Who'd run it if there's no state?
I'm not sure that I want to start with the anarchist side of this argument. :-)
Some of us have been talking about anarchist approaches to universal health care on another list. Somebody brought up the fact that insurance agencies, at least in the early epoch of their existence, were modeled on mutual aid societies. Perhaps a system of organized mutual aid societies, taking a cue from the insurance idea, could be based out of communities.
On a large scale, there are models like the Indian Ocean Tsunami relief effort which involved large amounts of people giving to NGOs. International cooperation and mutual aid are pretty workable. This should work for epidemics and large scale health emergencies.
There are other models that are compatible with anarchist ideas, such as the free clinic movement. You could also set up collective hospitals and medical clinics. I would hope that there is a widespread ethic that health care in funded by the community. Then you get into what kind of economic system exists, which I would expect would vary from community to community. How would healthcare exist in a gift-based economy? How about a community that is more communist? What about an economy that is mutualist and relies on an alternative currency?
I also think that an anarchist health care system would focus on healthy eating and living and preventative health. The goal would be to make people as healthy as possible so the medical/health system could then focus on emergency treatment and care of people with chronic health problems. If much of our current health woes are due to living in a capitalistr, industrial society, then living differently should hopefully lead to people being healthier.
Another anarchist alternative would be to further encourage the democratization of knowledge about medicine. The Internet has already empowered people to learn more about medicine and health. Research should all be open. The open access STM journal movement is a good start in an anarchist direction.
Just a few thoughts...
Chuck