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"In the US we don't ration care nearly to the extent that they do in eg Canada" Sure you do. Poor people don't get any health care, people with insurance get a

"In the US we don't ration care nearly to the extent that they do in eg Canada" Sure you do. Poor people don't get any health care, people with insurance get all the health care they want. You ration based on income and geographic location, as opposed to making people queue for care. But it's rationing both ways.

adventured 9y ago
> Poor people don't get any health care, people with insurance get all the health care they want. You just revealed that you don't know anything about the US healthcare system. Poor people have free healthcare in the US. It's the lower 20% to 40% income bracket that is getting particularly hammered. The top 50% have mostly good health coverage. The bottom 15%-20% is and has been covered by government healthcare for decades. I'll repeat it again for emphasis: if you're at or below the poverty line, you get free healthcare in the US. See: Medicaid and several other connected programs that are built just for that and are very large. If you earn near minimum wage, you're going to qualify for free healthcare in pretty much every state. And it's actually decent healthcare.
- guyzero 9y ago
  Has the situation where few doctors accept Medicare changed since 2009? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/retirementspecial/02health.html?mcubz=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/retirementspecial... edit: and I should clarify that yes, this is Medicare and not Medicaid and while I do understand the US medical system I'm not a health policy expert so I sometimes get specific points confused. Sheesh. Why does it take a PhD to figure out how to get medical coverage in the US?
jquery 9y ago
As typically understood, rationing is allowing each person to have a fixed amount of something no matter what. In the USA, if you want more healthcare, you have many options to increase your consumption. If you want to redefine rationing as anything that isn't yet post-scarcity, sure we have rationing. Aside: Poor people do get health care in the USA. My brother was unemployed and received over $1 million in healthcare for his son with cancer, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in care for his dialysis treatment and eventual kidney transplant.
- Retric 9y ago
  1 million in heathcare is still rationing. If say bill gates kid had cancer they would likely spend more money on care in the same situation. But, as you say until we are post scarcity there is going to be cost benifit analysis. All I am saying is our current system is inefficient, I don't expect we are going to transition before the next revolution. PS: A lot of government money ends up going to healthcare independent of patient care. Ex: HRSA Grants for Rural Heath systems add up to ~16 billion and are not counted as Medicare Medicare etc https://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/ https://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/

adventured 9y ago

> Poor people don't get any health care, people with insurance get all the health care they want. You just revealed that you don't know anything about the US healthcare system. Poor people have free healthcare in the US. It's the lower 20% to 40% income bracket that is getting particularly hammered. The top 50% have mostly good health coverage. The bottom 15%-20% is and has been covered by government healthcare for decades. I'll repeat it again for emphasis: if you're at or below the poverty line, you get free healthcare in the US. See: Medicaid and several other connected programs that are built just for that and are very large. If you earn near minimum wage, you're going to qualify for free healthcare in pretty much every state. And it's actually decent healthcare.

guyzero 9y ago
Has the situation where few doctors accept Medicare changed since 2009? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/retirementspecial/02health.html?mcubz=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/business/retirementspecial... edit: and I should clarify that yes, this is Medicare and not Medicaid and while I do understand the US medical system I'm not a health policy expert so I sometimes get specific points confused. Sheesh. Why does it take a PhD to figure out how to get medical coverage in the US?

jquery 9y ago

As typically understood, rationing is allowing each person to have a fixed amount of something no matter what. In the USA, if you want more healthcare, you have many options to increase your consumption. If you want to redefine rationing as anything that isn't yet post-scarcity, sure we have rationing. Aside: Poor people do get health care in the USA. My brother was unemployed and received over $1 million in healthcare for his son with cancer, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in care for his dialysis treatment and eventual kidney transplant.

Retric 9y ago
1 million in heathcare is still rationing. If say bill gates kid had cancer they would likely spend more money on care in the same situation. But, as you say until we are post scarcity there is going to be cost benifit analysis. All I am saying is our current system is inefficient, I don't expect we are going to transition before the next revolution. PS: A lot of government money ends up going to healthcare independent of patient care. Ex: HRSA Grants for Rural Heath systems add up to ~16 billion and are not counted as Medicare Medicare etc https://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/ https://www.hrsa.gov/ruralhealth/