3 ms·

>why the US is such a special snowflake that what works in various ways in every other first-world country cannot work here. I don't care for this argument sim

>why the US is such a special snowflake that what works in various ways in every other first-world country cannot work here. I don't care for this argument simply because the US was the first country to throw off monarchical rule. Why the need for homogeneity? Shouldn't we have as many different implementations as possible? Personally, I don't care for centralized power (i.e. Facebook). Didn't Google take a different approach to site ranking than every other search engine? If people want to see what state-level healthcare looks like, check out MA (so-called Romney-care). We had an amendment to the CO state constitution this past election that I voted for, but ultimately failed.

Ericson2314 10y ago
American healthcare isn't a city on a hill, it's a prison in a dump. Save your exceptionalist arguments for something which isn't unbelievably shitty.
_jal 10y ago
> I don't care for this argument simply because the US was the first country to throw off monarchical rule. I'm sorry you don't like it. We have an interesting history, but I do fail to see the relevance of a centuries-old political dispute to the question of modern healthcare policy[0]. > Why the need for homogeneity? This is a strange question. This seems to presuppose that all other first-world countries have identical single-payer or something. The structure of healthcare in the developed world takes many different forms - see [1] for a sampler. All of them work better than what we have, for cheaper. Personally, I'd be fine with any of those models. Or, if you have a new one, please, let's hear it - just about anything is going to be better than what we have[2]. > Shouldn't we have as many different implementations as possible? Unless you want to throw a lot of money and lives away, no. Generally, one experiments with different things in order to find out what works. We have a fairly decent, if not great, idea of things that work and things that don't. A huge swath of "things that don't" probably shouldn't be tried again, because that leads to suffering, death and wasted money. I'm all in favor of refining something that works into something that works better, and we should do that. But we need to get to the "something that works" part, first. > Personally, I don't care for centralized power Good. Me, too, and I think too few people feel that way. Unfortunately, if you're looking for decentralization in healthcare, you're still in the wrong country.[3] Bottom line for me: If, in fact, the U.S. is supposed to be exceptional, supposed to be showing the way, supposed to be a better place, why do we tolerate a sixth of our economy being a shit-pit of waste, misery and dysfunction? [0] For the pedantic, modulo constitutional issues, path-dependence through legal precedent, convincing people that somehow our government/land/people/animating spirit is so magically special that somehow economics, game theory and human nature don't apply to us, etc. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare-ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/#767a796e576f https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthc... [3] http://www.allhealth.org/health-care-consolidation-trends-impact-and-regulation/ http://www.allhealth.org/health-care-consolidation-trends-im...

Ericson2314 10y ago

American healthcare isn't a city on a hill, it's a prison in a dump. Save your exceptionalist arguments for something which isn't unbelievably shitty.

_jal 10y ago

> I don't care for this argument simply because the US was the first country to throw off monarchical rule. I'm sorry you don't like it. We have an interesting history, but I do fail to see the relevance of a centuries-old political dispute to the question of modern healthcare policy[0]. > Why the need for homogeneity? This is a strange question. This seems to presuppose that all other first-world countries have identical single-payer or something. The structure of healthcare in the developed world takes many different forms - see [1] for a sampler. All of them work better than what we have, for cheaper. Personally, I'd be fine with any of those models. Or, if you have a new one, please, let's hear it - just about anything is going to be better than what we have[2]. > Shouldn't we have as many different implementations as possible? Unless you want to throw a lot of money and lives away, no. Generally, one experiments with different things in order to find out what works. We have a fairly decent, if not great, idea of things that work and things that don't. A huge swath of "things that don't" probably shouldn't be tried again, because that leads to suffering, death and wasted money. I'm all in favor of refining something that works into something that works better, and we should do that. But we need to get to the "something that works" part, first. > Personally, I don't care for centralized power Good. Me, too, and I think too few people feel that way. Unfortunately, if you're looking for decentralization in healthcare, you're still in the wrong country.[3] Bottom line for me: If, in fact, the U.S. is supposed to be exceptional, supposed to be showing the way, supposed to be a better place, why do we tolerate a sixth of our economy being a shit-pit of waste, misery and dysfunction? [0] For the pedantic, modulo constitutional issues, path-dependence through legal precedent, convincing people that somehow our government/land/people/animating spirit is so magically special that somehow economics, game theory and human nature don't apply to us, etc. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthcare-ranked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/#767a796e576f https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/06/16/u-s-healthc... [3] http://www.allhealth.org/health-care-consolidation-trends-impact-and-regulation/ http://www.allhealth.org/health-care-consolidation-trends-im...