[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

[Jason Resch]

On Sat, Apr 1, 2017 at 7:12 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 8:08 PM, Jason Resch <jasonresch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ​> ​
>> I know better than to argue with you, but I want to note that your have
>> not presented experimental data but a somewhat cherry-picked observation.
>
>
> ​Jason, my heart is with libertarianism, if I was in the cherry picking
> business I'd pick statistics it cast it in a favorable light, but I value
> my brain and the scientific method more than I value any political system,
> even libertarianism.   ​
>

I meant it is cherry-picked data in the way it is framed: It picks the 30
countries that have higher life expectancies than the US.  This frames the
argument in a particular way, and ignores the majority of the available
data: the 145 other countries that have lower health expectancies than the
US.

Imagine if I offered a similar statistic:

"Of the top 17 countries with the highest GDP per capita
<http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Economy/GDP-per-capita>,
the US is dead last, in the 17th spot. Of these 17 countries, the US is the
only one with a constitutional republic form of government. All of the top
5 countries, and 80% of the top 10 countries are monarchies. Monarchies are
clearly the best form of government for maximizing GDP per capita. If we
switch our system of government to a monarchy our GDP per capita will
surely rise."


Do you see any problems with this reasoning?


>
> ​> ​
>> I agree that the US would likely be better off with single payer, but I
>> disagree with using your single statistic as the basis of reaching such a
>> conclusion.
>>
>
> ​It's not a single statistic!!! It's comparing the results of a multi
> trillion dollar healthcare policy in 31 countries involving a billion
> people over a period of decades, and the more libertarian policy did NOT
> come out on top.
>

Should it? Are there not other factors at play, such as the ones I
mentioned.


> That is not an opinion and it's not a alternative fact, it's just a fact
> supported by a mountain of data. As a libertarian I wish the data had told
> us something else but as a rational man I refuse to argue with reality;
> after all intelligence means adapting to changing information.
>
>
A fact, yes, but one that offers very little about what should be done. The
fact you present is that the US is 31st out of 196 countries in life
expectancy. There are many observations one could make about this fact. You
draw our attention to an observation that the US has a different health
system from the other countries, but actually, nearly every country has a
unique health system from all the others.  Thus study, names many
determinants of health:

http://phprimer.afmc.ca/Part1-TheoryThinkingAboutHealth/Chapter2DeterminantsOfHealthAndHealthInequities/DeterminantsofHealth

Should we ignore the other determinants? If so why?

Should we not do the scientific thing, and examine past experiments or
conduct new ones to test your theory?

Jason
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