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Stories like that undermine pushes for government funded healthcare. Private sector companies will do anything they can to hide things like this, just like gov

by JPKab 4y ago

Stories like that undermine pushes for government funded healthcare. Private sector companies will do anything they can to hide things like this, just like government organizations will. The difference is they don't have the level of immunity from prosecution and regulation that government organizations seem to always have. I spent a few years of my early career working on software in US VA hospitals, in between contracts in Intel space, when working for Booz Allen (US defense contractor). The managers and executives at the VA were a particularly awful bunch. It's hard to emphasize how warped some of these bureaucrats are. The lack of accountability was breathtaking, along with the wanton obstruction of my work (project to better integrate VA and Military Health System to ease transitioning veterans).

lock-the-spock 4y ago
This however ignores that government run healthcare runs very fine across Europe and canada. yes there are horror stories but just looking at longevity and healthcare statistics USA vs any western democraxy shows how atrocious the corporate model is.
- abigail95 4y ago
  Isn't Canada in an international news story for euthanising people to save money? The parent comment is about the accountability of public systems, not strictly about outcomes. Also I would caution about using population level statistics to inform an individual choice about healthcare. India is a pretty poor country, but has a really good private medical system. If I travel to India for treatment I'm not exposing myself to the healthcare outcomes of the Indian population - despite the fact that I'm using their medical system. The same thing applies to public vs private care for an individual within a country. You can tell me removing all private hospitals and healthcare will increase life expectancy for my population. But if I'm one of those people using the private system, I'm probably going to be worse off. So now we have a story about lack of accountability causing the unfortunate needless death of infants, with a clear solution and clear cause and effect. You can fix it by increasing accountability by telling the public hospital to "be more accountable" or you can require private hospital practicioners carry malpractice insurance. Even a poorly run malpractice insurance market can produce positive results (read studies from 1975-onwards). It's not so easy to make a public hospital accountable. You can't fire anyone, you can't sue them, and you can't reduce their budget if they don't perform.
  - slavik81 4y ago
    > Isn't Canada in an international news story for euthanising people to save money? No. The medically assisted dying legislation was expected to have a negligible impact on healthcare costs. Its introduction was driven by the Supreme Court ruling that all Canadians have a right to a full life, and denying assistance forces people with degenerative conditions to end their life earlier than they would wish (while they are still capable of doing it themselves), to avoid being trapped in an intolerable state of agony in their final days. The budget analysis done by the Parliamentary Budget Office was just the standard procedure for any legislation. It described insignificant cost savings (~0.03%).
  - kwhitefoot 4y ago
    > You can't fire anyone, you can't sue them Yes you can. And there are no win, no fee lawyers who hope to make a profit at it. https://www.nhsnegligence.co.uk/sue-hospital-for-negligence/ https://www.nhsnegligence.co.uk/sue-hospital-for-negligence/
Fiahil 4y ago
> Stories like that undermine pushes for government funded healthcare. Maybe in the US, but nobody is going to question it in the UK, France, Germany, and the rest of most European countries.

by JPKab 4y ago

lock-the-spock 4y ago

This however ignores that government run healthcare runs very fine across Europe and canada. yes there are horror stories but just looking at longevity and healthcare statistics USA vs any western democraxy shows how atrocious the corporate model is.

abigail95 4y ago
Isn't Canada in an international news story for euthanising people to save money? The parent comment is about the accountability of public systems, not strictly about outcomes. Also I would caution about using population level statistics to inform an individual choice about healthcare. India is a pretty poor country, but has a really good private medical system. If I travel to India for treatment I'm not exposing myself to the healthcare outcomes of the Indian population - despite the fact that I'm using their medical system. The same thing applies to public vs private care for an individual within a country. You can tell me removing all private hospitals and healthcare will increase life expectancy for my population. But if I'm one of those people using the private system, I'm probably going to be worse off. So now we have a story about lack of accountability causing the unfortunate needless death of infants, with a clear solution and clear cause and effect. You can fix it by increasing accountability by telling the public hospital to "be more accountable" or you can require private hospital practicioners carry malpractice insurance. Even a poorly run malpractice insurance market can produce positive results (read studies from 1975-onwards). It's not so easy to make a public hospital accountable. You can't fire anyone, you can't sue them, and you can't reduce their budget if they don't perform.
- slavik81 4y ago
  > Isn't Canada in an international news story for euthanising people to save money? No. The medically assisted dying legislation was expected to have a negligible impact on healthcare costs. Its introduction was driven by the Supreme Court ruling that all Canadians have a right to a full life, and denying assistance forces people with degenerative conditions to end their life earlier than they would wish (while they are still capable of doing it themselves), to avoid being trapped in an intolerable state of agony in their final days. The budget analysis done by the Parliamentary Budget Office was just the standard procedure for any legislation. It described insignificant cost savings (~0.03%).
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  > You can't fire anyone, you can't sue them Yes you can. And there are no win, no fee lawyers who hope to make a profit at it. https://www.nhsnegligence.co.uk/sue-hospital-for-negligence/ https://www.nhsnegligence.co.uk/sue-hospital-for-negligence/

Fiahil 4y ago

> Stories like that undermine pushes for government funded healthcare. Maybe in the US, but nobody is going to question it in the UK, France, Germany, and the rest of most European countries.