What a great idea! This type of game should be offered by every country. I think it is telling that one of the most socially democratic states in the world was the one to come up with this.
I have, for some time, been trying to enlighten people that in order to spend more you have to either increase the pie or cut from somewhere else. For instance, W cut taxes and raised spending. It doesn't take a genius to see how that fails to work out. Likewise, those who push for national healthcare don't have a way to fund it (other than taxing the rich).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Why then do we spend about 5x more per capita in health care costs than other countries with national health care and similar levels of health care quality?
Several reasons:
1. Medicare and Medicaid are a huge portion of this. Unfortunately, rather than a diverse portfolio, the US government has chosen to fund the highest risk, most expensive sector of society.
2. Our healthcare is much more expensive. First, because we have the best technology and research in the world and this pushes costs up. Look up how many MRI and PET scanners countries with national healthcare have and then find me a major city that doesn't have these in the US.
3. National healthcare drives down costs because they can negotiate and operate as a monopoly. Econ jargon: monopolists are not price takers, but competitve markets, such as ours are.
4. Countries with national healthcare also spend less because they only allocate a certain number of procedures per year and cannot go above that. Because they do not have the cushion of private insurance people spend lots of time waiting for procedures to be done. Look at waiting times for surgeries in Canada and better yet, see how much elective surgery occurs. For instance my doctor told me I'd be better off not getting surgery on my back. If I wanted to do it anyway because I am in pain, that qualifies as elective.
5. I would argue that the quality of care is better here...I know it is a subjective arguement, but I really believe that.
Post a Comment