Quote:1.)Significantly is a relative term.  As the Forbes article stated, we are essentially the world Leader in speed getting people to Treatment.  My wife for instance has had a routine check up at 10:00 and been in for a diagnostic referral before the close of business.  That creates value vs. a system that would make her wait 6 months for government approval.  Also, you have to make adjustments for other economic conditions.  Per Capita GDP in Britain is 38k and per Capita GDP in the US is nearly 60k then there is a built in difference in how that correlates to wages and thus the cost of delivering health care. 

 

There are certain features that other countries have tried that may add value to our overall health care market and I think it makes sense to consider adopting some of them. 

 

2.) Medicare Might not make statutory requirements of health care providers, but generally costs and reimbursements are based on the direction Medicare Takes.

 

3.) Agree, I am the one who bought it up.  When you walk into the average Doctors office, even if you ask what a procedure will cost they can't give you an answer.  More over, we bundle our catastrophic risk, preventative prepayment, incidental care risk, collective purchasing power, etc. all in the same financial instrument (current health insurance).  We should be looking at ways to take preventative and incidental care away from major insurance and have risk pools managed by care providers.  Also, we should be able to create groups to allow banding and collective purchasing that are a.) not tied to employment, b.) able to allow each individual policy owner to own their own policy. 

 

4.) You missed it.  at current about 71% of undocumented immigrants are on some form of government assistance.  The vast majority will not be covered or be receiving their care through some form of a government program.  That means that we are already subsidizing a population greater than that of most of the ALTERNATIVES That most people point to.  This is a contributing factor to why Switzerland actually spends about 1/3rd the money we do as a percentage of GDP on Healthcare expenses. 

 

5.) Why do you keep pointing to other countries that have longer wait times and less choice as better options?  more over, why don't you point to the VA as the system that you want to participate in?  Why don't you tout the actuarial solvency of Social Security as the Gold standard in Modern government run insurance?  Why don't you tout the transparency of the Obama Care deliberations, and the promises made to the American people as the clear winner over Public Insurance companies and their requirements to tell the Truth? 

 

Instead we just get the standard answer of "all other industrialized Democracies"  When we point out that our current employer based system is the byproduct of failed price controls what's your response? 

 

As FL pointed out, the basic principle of economics is Scarcity.  That Scarcity will manifest itself in some way, be it through price or lack of supply.  We could pass a law that says every laptop only costs 5 dollars.  Guess how many laptops will get produced?  Allow people to see their own costs, make their decisions and hold providers accountable to provide more options to the public to do things more efficiently while getting barriers out of their way! 

 

Will provide more detail later when I get more time, but thanks for your reply.

1) I am not aware of these 6 month waits for a general checkup, but maybe you have some info. When I say significantly, I refer to things like the deaths due to lack of insurance, the huge numbers of bankruptcies, and other admittedly less specific info like satisfaction with care and life expectancy. 

2) If by based you mean it servers as a starting off point, maybe, but I think there is very large variance in the specifics.

3) Good, we agree on the price transparency and the removal of links to employment. That at least provides a bit of groundwork for me to wrap my head around a private system with no governmental involvement, which I think is your preference, or am I off on that?

4) Yeah, I did miss it and still am. I am not seeing the impact you are giving to undocumented impact. Got any facts for this?

5) No, i point to other countries that have far more choice, and have seen nothing from anyone on the wait times that indicates that the other countries like Switzerland or France are worse. And I have no idea what you are talking about with Obamacare. Other than the preexisting conditions stuff, I am not a big fan.And referring to the origin of a bad system being a bastardization of some 1940's dodge seems pretty irrelevant compared to real-time comparisons with those 'other countries'. 

 

Finally, what does scarcity have to do with the costs of a shoulder replacement procedure being less in France or Germany than the U.S.?

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