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EDIT: Disregard 'you consider the NHS...' - got your comment mixed up with somebody elses. The actual point is that nationalization tends to have mismanagement
by danjayh 10y ago
EDIT: Disregard 'you consider the NHS...' - got your comment mixed up with somebody elses.
The actual point is that nationalization tends to have mismanagement and shortages as an outcome, and private markets do not (at least not to the same extent). You consider NHS to be an example of a well run nationalized system, and yet the NHS deals with chronic rationing [0] [1], has queues for many things (and actually lets you pay to jump place in line) [2]. I'd hardly call that efficient or well run - instead, I'd call it symptomatic of central planning. W/ regard to people using bidets, cloth diapers, and washclothes - in a system with chronic shortages, people don't have those either. During the 90s and 00s I thought that perhaps China's simultaneous transition from poverty and shortage to (relative) wealth and abundance (which was driven by their transition from state control to capitalism) would have finally put this 'the state could eliminate shortages and give everybody everything' nonsense to rest, but it seems that people have very short memories indeed (or just weren't born yet when the major experiments in nationalization were underway).
[0] http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/08/nhs-rationing-denying-patients-care-cash-crisis-survery-doctors http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/08/nhs-rationing...
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/apr/24/rationing-care-fact-of-life-nhs http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2015/apr/24/ra...
[2] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3104106/NHS-charges-patients-14-000-jump-queue-crucial-ops-Hospitals-letting-need-knee-hip-replacement-surgery-pay-skip-queue.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3104106/NHS-charge...
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoThe shortages in the American private market is simply much more difficult to see. Folks might theoretically be able to go to the doctor, but not having the money to do so - instant shortage of healthcare. There are wait times here for doctors, but can you really tell me that the insurers in the states have no mismanagement? They had to pass a law to cover pre-existing conditions like diabetes. There is a lot of waste in the system in the states - there is truly no reason for an expensive MRI machine to sit there empty most times unless it is reserved for emergencies... yet they are such. No system is perfect. My experience with private care has been in the US, and my experience with nationalized is in Norway. I've tried to go to doctors both places with waiting lists of weeks, and the waiting is a bit longer for specialists here than there. Give and take. I'd still prefer to actually be able to get health care when i need it regardless of having the finances to do it. I actually prefer to have a mix of the two - strong national care with an option to be private.