4 ms·

I'd hardly call the current American system Free. The market responded to the [ridiculous] capricious regulations. You get what you ask for.

munk-a 5y ago
Oh - that's a new one. It's essentially the "there's never been a true communist government" argument but the other way around. Canada has more regulations than the US and my stepson has extremely special health needs - there have been times we've been nervous that no health agency will cover them but thankfully, so far, that's never happened. The instance where he was truly up a creek the hospital holding him simply refused to release him due to the lack of available care.
- abfan1127 5y ago
  Nots not about "true this" or "true that". Incentives are real. Hospitals have real costs. Doctors want real wages. Electricity costs money. Machines cost money. Land costs money. To cover these costs, you must have income. Manipulate how income can be received, or manipulate how costs must be bared. But these don't change the fact that healthcare has costs. You can argue that one particular system has better trade-offs than another. But that is based on your incentives. We, as consumers, want the best healthcare for free right now. Consumers and providers must meet in the middle somewhere. However, if government eliminates meeting places on the map, you can expect non-optimal locations.
  - rp1 5y ago
    No one is arguing that healthcare doesn’t have costs. But healthcare in the U.S. costs a lot more than in other places, and the reason it costs so much is that we allow doctors, hospitals, and pharma companies to exploit the vulnerable for profit. The machines and drugs are the same across the world, but we pay a ridiculous markup so doctors and execs can earn 500k+ a year. 25% of U.S. GDP is spent on healthcare. Think about how insane that is: one out of every four dollars of economic activity is spent on healthcare.
    - abfan1127 5y ago
      American Healthcare is visibly expensive. Other countries hide their expenses in taxes. Further, where is most healthcare innovation? that has costs as well. I'm not defending the current American model as it has many features which make things worse (from my perspective).

munk-a 5y ago

Oh - that's a new one. It's essentially the "there's never been a true communist government" argument but the other way around. Canada has more regulations than the US and my stepson has extremely special health needs - there have been times we've been nervous that no health agency will cover them but thankfully, so far, that's never happened. The instance where he was truly up a creek the hospital holding him simply refused to release him due to the lack of available care.

abfan1127 5y ago
Nots not about "true this" or "true that". Incentives are real. Hospitals have real costs. Doctors want real wages. Electricity costs money. Machines cost money. Land costs money. To cover these costs, you must have income. Manipulate how income can be received, or manipulate how costs must be bared. But these don't change the fact that healthcare has costs. You can argue that one particular system has better trade-offs than another. But that is based on your incentives. We, as consumers, want the best healthcare for free right now. Consumers and providers must meet in the middle somewhere. However, if government eliminates meeting places on the map, you can expect non-optimal locations.
- rp1 5y ago
  No one is arguing that healthcare doesn’t have costs. But healthcare in the U.S. costs a lot more than in other places, and the reason it costs so much is that we allow doctors, hospitals, and pharma companies to exploit the vulnerable for profit. The machines and drugs are the same across the world, but we pay a ridiculous markup so doctors and execs can earn 500k+ a year. 25% of U.S. GDP is spent on healthcare. Think about how insane that is: one out of every four dollars of economic activity is spent on healthcare.
  - abfan1127 5y ago
    American Healthcare is visibly expensive. Other countries hide their expenses in taxes. Further, where is most healthcare innovation? that has costs as well. I'm not defending the current American model as it has many features which make things worse (from my perspective).