&gt;Sure, basic income would be better than a patch work welfare state present in most of the developed world<p>In many countries the government negotiates medicine prices as one entity for the entire country. This gives it a lot of leverage and the ability to provide medicine for all its citizens at a price far lower than what they would each individually be able to buy it at.<p>Now if everybody had basic income the governments might start getting pressured to stop acting as an intermediate negotiator.