[ExI] New York Times piece on cryonics, featuring Robin Hanson & Peggy

[samantha]

Damien Sullivan wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 01:14:05PM -0400, Michael D wrote:
>
>   
>>    Yes that is true, but the problem is that in many, if not most,
>>    implementations of socialized medicine, private health care is just
>>    simply illegal. 
>>     
>
> This is simply false.
>   
I know people that escape from Canada to here for some types of care 
that they cannot legally find in Canada. 
> It may be true in Communist countries -- but then, those are countries
> where *everything* private is illegal, or at risk.  There's also rather
> few such countries still around.
>   
No.  It is not just communist countries.  Socialism is a sliding scale 
that has consequences over time.  Socialize some function like health 
care and certain results can be expected in the long run with a set of 
possible variations.
> In actual countries with "socialized" medicine, as opposed to socialized
> everything, it is simply not true.  Canada was closest, with a ban on
> doctors charging privately for procedures covered by Canadian Medicare,
> to avoid two-tier systems. 
See above.  Also restrictions on what they can and cannot do.  Overall 
some types of medicine that are not officially sanctioned simply become 
uncompetitive and disappear in the country.  Also some physicians and 
researchers simply vote with their feed and leave for places they are 
more free to practice as they wish and more likely to make a viable 
living doing so.

>  (Though the doctors typically operate
> privately, charging the system, rather than acting as public employees.)
> Even there, if it *wasn't* covered it could still be privately paid for.
> Elsewhere, totally private medicine certainly exists.
>   


>   
>>    care is strictly outlawed. Socilaized health care is more often than
>>    not egalitarian, not utilitarian.
>>     
>
>   

> Again, false.
>
>   
It has been stated as being justified on egalitarian grounds repeatedly.


- samantha

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