What Ills US Health Care
Health care costs in the USA are going through the roof. The Ryan plan that just changes the scheme by which the bills are paid merely rearranges the deck chairs. It does not do anything to bring the total expenditures under control. It actually makes them worse by making the entire population a captive customer for the insurance industry to easily exploit. The problem is:
- The Health care industry is obscenely profitable. They are permitted to keep jacking up prices even when costs have not risen. They are permitted to dump non-profitable patients. There are all manner of laws to favour monopolies include patent law and laws preventing the government from doing bulk bids on drugs and supplies.
- You spend most of your lifetime healthcare budget in your last year of life, most of that is the last months, weeks and days. There is no point is painful heroic measures that can give only a few extra weeks of misery. What’s worse, his treatment is forced on those who don’t even want to live any longer. Let people die with help and dignity, if they want to. Let us encourage people who will die soon to accept palliative care to make their final days as comfortable as possible, rather than radical surgery with almost no chance of significant benefit.
Every developed country has for all practical purposes solved the health care problem. They spend half or less of what the US does. They get much better outcomes. They have their problems, e.g. long waiting lists for hip surgery in Canada, but they are popcorn to what Americans face. All the US need do is copy any of the other developed countries (even Cuba does better on a minute fraction of the budget.) The main roadblocks are:
~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)
- The health care industry that has a vested interest in raising their billings ever higher. The Republicans act as their agents since the health care industry spends so much in campaign donations and under the table perks to Republicans.
- The Republican ideology that government involvement in health care is inherently wicked. They never explain why. It is matter of religious faith. Most American swallow this without thinking. They think there is something honourable about going without health care. When I lived in San Francisco in 1985, almost none of my friends had health care, even though they were employed. They all had untreated health problems. This is irresponsible. Your bad health hurts the health of others.