3 ms·

That is why population “medicine” is anything but “medicine”. The State is not a physician. But turns out that it IS.

• refurb 4y ago
  People point to the US, but every country in the world is struggling with healthcare costs and how to contain them. As technologies develop, costs will only continue to rise - the question is how to control costs and get the maximum benefit. From my own experience it's typically done a few ways: 1) the government decides what treatment will be paid for and which ones won't [this works pretty well since patients don't know what they're missing], 2) the government simply caps a budget and pushes treatment decision down - doctors and hospital are forced to make trade-offs. Countries that do #2 often have long wait times for elective procedures - that's the cost control mechanism. The US does neither one of these very well (but does them to some extent, but it's unevenly applied), so costs are very high (in addition to other factors). But if one wants universal care and a manageable healthcare budget, you need to say "no" to some things that would otherwise still benefit the patient.