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When cost-cutting needs to happen... and it's inevitable, the people with severe disabilities will be the first ones to get cut. Government-funded health care

When cost-cutting needs to happen... and it's inevitable, the people with severe disabilities will be the first ones to get cut. Government-funded health care suffers from all the same economic problems that privately financed health care suffers from, and the government is just as corrupt as any private organization, plus there tends to be little incentive for efficiency, so government programs tend to be extremely inefficient and wasteful. I appreciate (and agree with) your concern for the disabled, but letting the government be in charge is a recipe for making everything worse.

ceejayoz 9y ago
> I appreciate (and agree with) your concern for the disabled, but letting the government be in charge is a recipe for making everything worse. Except we have pretty much the entire developed world's healthcare systems to debunk that claim. They have similar life expectancies, medical outcomes, infant mortality, access to care, wait times, etc. for half the cost.
- gregmac 9y ago
  Similar, sure, but US is ranked: * 31st for Life Expectancy [1] * 32nd in infant mortality [2] * 5th for colorectal cancer survival [3] * 1st for breast cancer survival [3] * 19th for cervical cancer survival [3] * 7th for heart attack mortality [3] The actual numbers are reasonably close, but the cost is also about 25% more per captia [4] than the second highest-spending country. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_an... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_quality_of_healthcare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_quality_o... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...
redler 9y ago
Government-funded health care suffers from all the same economic problems that privately financed health care suffers from Except the biggest one: the need to maximize the extraction and distribution of profit to shareholders, while funding the cheapest and least amount of care possible without jeopardizing that imperative.
isostatic 9y ago
Yes, I remember some right wing US rag saying the following in 2009: People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless. Forgive me while I laugh uncontrollably
- ceejayoz 9y ago
  Yup. Investor's Business Daily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor%27s_Business_Daily#Errors_and_retractions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor%27s_Business_Daily#Er... > In July 2009, an editorial in Investor's Business Daily claimed that physicist Stephen Hawking "wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the [British] National Health Service (NHS) would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." Hawking has always lived in the United Kingdom and receives his medical care from the NHS.

ceejayoz 9y ago

> I appreciate (and agree with) your concern for the disabled, but letting the government be in charge is a recipe for making everything worse. Except we have pretty much the entire developed world's healthcare systems to debunk that claim. They have similar life expectancies, medical outcomes, infant mortality, access to care, wait times, etc. for half the cost.

gregmac 9y ago
Similar, sure, but US is ranked: * 31st for Life Expectancy [1] * 32nd in infant mortality [2] * 5th for colorectal cancer survival [3] * 1st for breast cancer survival [3] * 19th for cervical cancer survival [3] * 7th for heart attack mortality [3] The actual numbers are reasonably close, but the cost is also about 25% more per captia [4] than the second highest-spending country. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_and_under-five_mortality_rates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_an... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_quality_of_healthcare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_quality_o... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...

redler 9y ago

Government-funded health care suffers from all the same economic problems that privately financed health care suffers from Except the biggest one: the need to maximize the extraction and distribution of profit to shareholders, while funding the cheapest and least amount of care possible without jeopardizing that imperative.

isostatic 9y ago

Yes, I remember some right wing US rag saying the following in 2009: People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless. Forgive me while I laugh uncontrollably

ceejayoz 9y ago
Yup. Investor's Business Daily. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor%27s_Business_Daily#Errors_and_retractions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investor%27s_Business_Daily#Er... > In July 2009, an editorial in Investor's Business Daily claimed that physicist Stephen Hawking "wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the [British] National Health Service (NHS) would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." Hawking has always lived in the United Kingdom and receives his medical care from the NHS.