[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

[Dylan Distasio]

John-

I realize I said I would likely not respond to your bullying close minded
replies (sound like anyone in US politics you profess to despise?), but
this being the internet, I can't help myself.  Have you even done a cursory
amount of digging before proclaiming single payer the best thing since
sliced bread.  To answer your question in terms of more important stats,
there are plenty more of them if you're in the wrong bucket.  You don't
even take the time to distinguish between a system like Canada's which is
single payer insurance and a system like the UK where it is full socialized
medicine.  You have not touched at all upon how long the waits are for
various procedures, what survival rates are across various diseases, etc.

I'm not sure why you even care about any of this since we're all going to
be dust in a nuclear winter within the next ~4 years anyways according to
your previous "facts."

Is the below chart just another meaningless stat or is there perhaps a more
nuanced view required to have an intelligent discussion on this topic.  If
I was Scottish and ended up with prostate cancer, I would certainly believe
there was.

[image: CONCORD Scotland US]

I'm not defending the current US healthcare system as superior, merely
attempting to demonstrate that your pounding of the drum for single payer
care is overly simplistic at best.  I'm sure the epidemiologists and policy
makers would be happy to know that you have discovered the one simple stat
that will show us the way forward.  I'm glad you don't care about wait
times for procedures, and are entirely willing to discount that ~90% of
Canadians live close enough to the US to get private care if they don't
want to wait in the lines for it north of the border for certain
procedures, but I would again state that you are attempting to unreasonably
extrapolate national health care policy from one stat and a correlation.
This is not how good science is done.

Ironically, the current POTUS agrees with your stance.  If he had his
druthers based on comments during the debate, we would be single payer.  He
thinks these other systems are bigly also.  I wonder how you feel about
that.

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 1:11 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 11:35 AM, Dylan Distasio <interzone at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> ​> ​
>> Since you seem to be hung up on the longevity metric,
>>
>
> ​Yes silly me, I think living longer is often a rather good idea,
> especially if it cost less than dying sooner.
>
>
>> ​> ​
>> I would remind you that correlation does not imply causation,
>>
>
> ​Yes and it's just a coincidence that ​the top 30 countries in longevity
> have a simple single payer plan that cost half as much as the USA's super
> complex and confusing plan, and it's also just a coincidence that those 30
> countries live longer too.
>
> If you believe that there is a bridge I'd like to sell you.
>
>
>> ​> ​
>> and that one stat you're bandying about does not tell the whole picture.
>>
>
> ​Why the hell not? What statistic is more important than cost versus life
> expectancy? ​
>
> ​> ​
>> It is not as simple as saying the AVERAGE citizen lives longer and on the
>> surface it costs less, so it is an open and shut case, single payer wins
>> and is the reason they are living longer.  If you truly believe that, I
>> guess I don't have much else to say on the topic.
>>
>
> ​I don't ​think anybody who valued the scientific method more than they
> valued ANY political ideology would write the above. Sometimes a rational
> person must be ruthless, so I will show a theory that doesn't fit the facts
> no mercy regardless of the emotional attachment I may have for it.
>
>   John K Clark
>
>
>>
>
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