The alternative of a death panel in whom we have no choice, whose word is law, and whom it is illegal to circumvent is much scarier.
It's also a fantasy that has no relevance to US heath reform, or to most countries with "socialized medicine".
Well, apart from the FDA and DEA telling you what drugs you can use. Cancer patient wants marijuana? The DEA will be their death panel.
And do not try to make me believe health care we cannot afford as a collective of free individuals somehow becomes affordable when the government gets involved. Health care costs what it costs, and government pork and inefficiency is not going to make it cost any less than self-interest and market forces will.
But you're wrong on all counts. Health care for the sick will be 'affordable' specifically because the rest of us will be picking up the cost, rather than leaving them to die as unprofitable.
Health care costs are not fixed, nor correlated with outcomes. For-profit doctors have incentives to charge for more and more tests. Doctors in general have to charge more to cover those who don't pay -- or whose payment insurance companies balk at -- and to cover the costs of dealing with multiple hostile insurance companies. Insurance company premiums are higher to generate profits, and to pay people to figure out how to deny care and wriggle out of their contracts, while the doctors pay people to argue with the insurance companies.
And insurance companies have little incentive to pay for long-term preventive care, saving money for future companies or for Medicare. A system that took global responsibility for lifetime health could save a lot of money by paying for full preventive care.
As for inefficiency, Medicare's overhead is about 2%; insurance companies have overhead of 14%. And as a whole, the US spends far more than any other country, while having worse outcomes.
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Date: 2009-10-22 04:59 am (UTC)It's also a fantasy that has no relevance to US heath reform, or to most countries with "socialized medicine".
Well, apart from the FDA and DEA telling you what drugs you can use. Cancer patient wants marijuana? The DEA will be their death panel.
And do not try to make me believe health care we cannot afford as a collective of free individuals somehow becomes affordable when the government gets involved. Health care costs what it costs, and government pork and inefficiency is not going to make it cost any less than self-interest and market forces will.
But you're wrong on all counts.
Health care for the sick will be 'affordable' specifically because the rest of us will be picking up the cost, rather than leaving them to die as unprofitable.
Health care costs are not fixed, nor correlated with outcomes. For-profit doctors have incentives to charge for more and more tests. Doctors in general have to charge more to cover those who don't pay -- or whose payment insurance companies balk at -- and to cover the costs of dealing with multiple hostile insurance companies. Insurance company premiums are higher to generate profits, and to pay people to figure out how to deny care and wriggle out of their contracts, while the doctors pay people to argue with the insurance companies.
And insurance companies have little incentive to pay for long-term preventive care, saving money for future companies or for Medicare. A system that took global responsibility for lifetime health could save a lot of money by paying for full preventive care.
As for inefficiency, Medicare's overhead is about 2%; insurance companies have overhead of 14%. And as a whole, the US spends far more than any other country, while having worse outcomes.