5 ms·
Seems like the U.S. should adopt the Swiss system. It's much more effective than the current U.S. train wreck without quite so much political baggage as single-
by tntn 8y ago
Seems like the U.S. should adopt the Swiss system. It's much more effective than the current U.S. train wreck without quite so much political baggage as single-payer systems.
- dagw 8y agoThey tried taking a baby step in that direction with Obamacare. Government mandatory anything is a seriously hard sell in the US. I honestly think single payer is an easier sell at this point.
- monetus 8y agoI would be curious as to how well public opinion correlates with legislation in regards to healthcare. The 'selling' of healthcare seems to be mostly propaganda, not a comprehensive description of the structures, inputs, and outputs of the healthcare system. I've always been of the opinion that kind of information should be available next to the ballot box. I just have no idea how it should be presented.
- dagw 8y agoI've always been of the opinion that kind of information should be available next to the ballot box. Even the quickest of comprehensive summaries about a the ins and outs of your average healthcare plan would probably run at least 30 pages (and the actual bills run 100s of pages). Do you really expect to people to read that just before they vote? Honestly, unless you are a hardcore healthcare wonk, reading the 1 page 'propaganda' summary is realistically all you can expect from people.
- monetus 8y agoI completely agree, and no, it shouldn't be a prerequisite for voting. Using a mountain of indigestible information to assuage potential ignorance doesn't make much since... Like I said, I don't know how it should be presented.
- tntn 8y agoObamacare was an attempt in that direction, but for a lot of healthy people it made more sense to pay the relatively low penalty than get insurance. This breaks everything about it.
- djrogers 8y agoIn many cases it made more sense to claim one of the sixteen or so reasons for exemption from the penalty than to even pay it...
- adventured 8y agoThe single most important thing for the US to do right now, is to considerably bring down the per capita spending on healthcare, by reducing the cost of everything in the system. It must be hammered down, belligerently. We have to slash at least $1 trillion in healthcare spending. Everyone in the healthcare industry is going to be extremely upset about that. It will all come directly out of their pockets. That will include doctors and nurses, middle class people working in health insurance, biotech companies, medtech device makers, you name it. As you bring the cost down, implementing broader socialized medicine than what the US already has (half of all Americans are getting some form of government healthcare coverage), becomes that much easier and cost effective. As costs stand today, there is no way the US can afford to implement the style of socialized medicine that Canada or Britain have - we're spending twice what they are per capita. The Democrats in California recently looked at implementing universal healthcare for the state, they immediately walked away from it because it's financially impossible at current costs.