[ExI] socialism

spike at rainier66.com spike at rainier66.com
Mon Feb 25 02:12:30 UTC 2019



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Dan TheBookMan
>...
> 
> Where is that comparison taken into account?
> 
> We should compare European countries with other European countries, and compare the US to other countries which also require bachelors degrees for medical school admissions.

>...I don’t think any given European nation is necessarily more comparable with any other European nation... (Of course, one could blame it on US-Americans being less healthy, but the US governments spends even more than nations with the same or worse healthy people.)  Regards, Dan


I would like to know how to take into account factors that really aren't directly a factor of the effectiveness of the medical system, such as the impact of all these new forms of synthetic dope, creating addicts and (probably) early death.  An experience about 4 yrs ago causes me to wonder: my bride had to be taken to the ER in the middle of the night with throat swelling.  By the time we got in there, she was already doing better, but we saw a doctor anyway.  Two docs, total facetime with both was less  than an hour.  Bill: 14 thousand dollars.

While there I noticed most of the ER beds were being occupied by dopers sleeping it off.  It was pretty clear they weren't going to pay any medical bills.  So the occasional insured patient pays the bill for everyone there.  How is that taken into account?  If we are using the ER as a homeless doper sleep station, why should that be comparable to other nations' medical costs?  Can anyone tell me what happens in South American nations when they find some unconscious stoner?  Do they rush him to the ER and pour him into a bed to see if he wakes up, then bill the occasional insurance holder for all of it?

I have long suspected plenty of what we are calling medical expenses are really the cost of prosperity.  A rich society won't just hurl an inert doper into a jail cell, nor let him freeze to death in the night, which is what I suspect happens in less prosperous nations.

spike
   






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