4 ms·

You can just look at UK and you can see that things can be done better. Or Canada...

• Chris2048 9y ago
  The NHS is constantly on the verge of collapse.
  • tim333 9y ago
    But never actually collapses.
    • Chris2048 9y ago
      It hasn't yet, since the taxpayer props it up.
      • foldr 9y ago
        Of course the taxpayer props it up. It is a taxpayer funded system. That is like saying that the taxpayer "props up" the military or the court system.
        • Chris2048 9y ago
          You can downgrade the military to some extend if costs keep rising, what of the NHS?
          • foldr 9y ago
            You can obviously (i) downgrade the range of treatments that the NHS will pay for, (ii) increase its funding, or (iii) do a do a bit of both.
            • Chris2048 9y ago
              When you can no longer do (ii), you start to do (i). But since no one wants either, the pressure usually ends up on doctors. If there is an exodus from the public sector, instead of a slow downgrade, then it will collapse. edit: the original point is that the US should have a system like the UK - but is the NHS even sustainable?
              • foldr 9y ago
                The NHS is more sustainable than the current US system by virtually any conceivable measure. In fact, the one thing that every political party in the US agrees on is that the system cannot continue in its present form. The problem of rising healthcare costs is a real one, not an artefact of a particular system, and there is no easy fix for it.