A lot of the discussion in this thread seems to be along the lines of “if universal care is instituted in the US, then it will be ruinously expensive, because d

A lot of the discussion in this thread seems to be along the lines of “if universal care is instituted in the US, then it will be ruinously expensive, because doctors will authorize every kind of treatment and the taxpayers will pick up the bill” vs. “no, because when this is done in other countries, the agency that finances health care sets standards for what procedures and drugs they will cover under what circumstances”. I would like to point out that whether or not universal health care is brought to the US (it’s scheduled to kick in under Obamacare, but if the Republicans win they can effectively kill it), the fee-for-service model of paying doctors will have to go away, because right now that model is one of the things running up the cost of private health insurance here. The insurance companies, faced with rising costs, can either impose more restrictive rules about what they will or will not cover, or they can hike their premiums. In the former case, they’re doing the same thing that a government agency would do, except that people generally change insurers when they change jobs... meaning that any care that costs money up front but would prevent problems five or ten years down the line is not worth spending money on, because some other insurance company would be picking up the savings. In the latter case, middle- and upper-class families see more of their paycheck going to insurance, while people who can’t afford the premiums but aren’t poor enough for Medicaid just go without insurance, depend on the emergency room if they really really need something, and risk getting bankrupted by medical bills if a serious condition does appear. (Which is why Obamacare was passed in the first place.)