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I'm not sure why you conclude insurance cannot solve healthcare. Private insurance, where there's a profit motive, may be inappropriate but insurance - as a con
by amoorthy 8y ago
I'm not sure why you conclude insurance cannot solve healthcare. Private insurance, where there's a profit motive, may be inappropriate but insurance - as a concept of spreading risk over a large population - seems logical for a generally healthy population with occasional health issues.
The problem with healthcare is it's not a good like others which are insured. Even with price transparency the patient isn't qualified to decide what treatment to get at what price (your doctor is), and often the patient isn't at their best physically or mentally when treatment decisions need to be made.
Comparing the US healthcare cost to other countries is slightly misleading as much of the world free-rides off US pharma research.
If we want affordable insurance we should let people with chronic or debilitating diseases die rather than treat them with expensive medications/procedures that increase cost on us all. But when it's your loved one that's sick it's extremely hard to be this cavalier about the decision to not treat at any cost. I know I couldn't make that call.
- maxxxxx 8y ago"Comparing the US healthcare cost to other countries is slightly misleading as much of the world free-rides off US pharma research." I want to see hard numbers on this. I strongly believe that this is just self-serving propaganda to justify ripping off people in the US.
- amoorthy 8y agoFair request on hard data. I don't have it and don't want to suggest this is a well-researched point on my part by simply Googling some random report. I was going off comments from some post-doc friends who immigrated to the US because they said medical research funding here is much better than elsewhere. (As an aside I think some replies to my comment misunderstood my point. I believe government insurance is highly appropriate for a good like healthcare. Just that it's not without it's downsides and being Canadian I've seen those first-hand).
- HarryHirsch 8y agomuch of the world free-rides off US pharma research Hospitals do research now? The rest of the world gets free rides off US-made plaster casts for broken arms?
- astockwell 8y agoBecause we have 40+ years of concrete first-hand evidence that it does not.
- heimidal 8y agoThe line about US pharma research providing a free ride to other countries is exactly what the pharma lobby wants everyone to think. Meanwhile, they’ve enjoyed record profits leading to huge stock buyback programs and easily capture the majority of profits in the healthcare sector. Pharma companies are ripping off Americans and we’re letting them.