[ExI] My prediction

[John Clark]

On Sun, Jan 11, 2026 at 10:02 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

*>> …Per capita Canada pays about $6000 a year on healthcare and Canadians
>> have a life expectancy of 82.9 years, the USA pays nearly $15,000 a year on
>> healthcare and Americans (who are members of the same species as
>> Canadians)…*
>
>
>
> *> Same species, ja.  But there are important differences. *
>

*Differences strong enough for you to ignore the fact that 47 other
countries are much better at handling things that relate to health care
then the US is?  *


> * > When citing the life expectancy statistics, we should filter out
> murders,*
>

*That wouldn't be necessary if we copied Canadians not only in the way they
handle healthcare but also in the way they filter out bad gun laws.  *


>> *>> …1) How on earth can charging Americans and only Americans
>> ridiculously high prices for drugs prevent foreign companies ….*
>>
>>
>>
>> * > we know that drug companies charge a lot for their products here*
>

*Yes*


> *> and we know why:*
>

*Yes.*



> *> the market will bear it. *
>

*Yes. And we know why the US market will bear it but the market will NOT
bear it anyplace else, because the US is the only country in the world that
refuses to negotiate with drug companies over prices.   *


> >>…*2) … Even our quack Secretary Of Health is not crazy enough to
>> approve a drug whose composition and manufacture is kept secret ..... or at
>> least I don't think he's that crazy….*
>
>
>
> *> So… streamline the drug approval process. *
>

*Sure but that advice is so vague as to be useless. But I have advice that
is not vague and it has been proven to work, just copy what other countries
have done.  *

>> …*3) Many of the world's most popular drugs, such as the weight loss
>> drug Ozempic, were developed outside of the USA by foreign companies, and
>> yet those drugs still cost much more in the USA than they do anywhere
>> else….*
>
>
>
>
> *> Isn’t that crazy?  Fentanyl and cocaine somehow get here, yet we can’t
> import foreign Ozempic?  *
>

*We can import Ozempic, but unlike every other country in the world the US
can't negotiate with the Danish company Nordisk on pricing. Now THAT is
crazy. Hmm, I just had a thought, maybe all this Greenland business is just
a front and the real reason Mr. I lowered Drug Prices By 1600 Percent wants
to go to war with NATO ally Denmark is because of Ozempic and the fact that
he doesn't like fat people even though he himself is fat. *

*You might be interested to hear what this REPUBLICAN Senator thinks about
Greenland and the shabby way the US has treated a loyal ally like Denmark: *

* 'I'm sick of stupid!' | Republican Thom Tillis' SCATHING message to
Stephen Miller* <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyzzj_a7Tnw>


> >> …*The real reason drug prices are so ridiculously high in the USA is
>> because every developed country on this planet, with the exception of the
>> USA, uses their government's bargaining power to negotiate drug prices, and
>> that gives them enormous leverage. But in the USA the law specifically
>> forbids Medicare, the largest drug purchaser, from negotiating drug
>> prices….*
>
>
>
> *> OK, so elect representatives who run on the platform of changing that.*
>

*Great idea, so why do Republicans oppose allowing Medicare to negotiate
with drug companies like every other country in the world does? *

>

> *>>… Therefore the drug companies are able to say to Americans, and only
>> to Americans, "pay me or die"….*
>
>
>
> *> Well sure, but Americans have the option of going overseas for medical
> treatment, or Canada, or Mexico. *
>

*I don't feel I must slavishly make lame excuses for a political ideology
even when a policy it's advocating very clearly doesn't work, therefore I
don't think "if you don't like it here then move" is an effective rebuttal
to the charge that the US healthcare industry is ineffective, or that the
Electoral College system is imbecilic, in fact I don't think it's an
effective rebuttal against ANYTHING .*



> *>> …  In 2014, just before the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare)
>> took effect, 48 million Americans were uninsured, by 2016, only 27 million
>> were uninsured….*
>
>
>
> *> How many are uninsured now? *
>

*Because of the expiration of the ACA premium tax credits it's estimated
that between 3.8 and 7.3 million people will lose all health insurance in
2026, and millions more will have to get by with significantly reduced
coverage. Meanwhile a man who doesn't know how to dance gets a gold plated
ballroom.*

*>> …Obamacare wasn't the wholesale restructuring that our healthcare
>> system so desperately needs, but it was certainly better than nothing…..*
>
>
>
>
> *> So why didn’t they do wholesale restructuring in 2009, when they had
> the chance?*
>

*The Democrats tried to do just that but they couldn't shut down the
Republican filibuster in the Senate. On July 7, 2009: Al Franken was
finally sworn in after the Minnesota Supreme Court certified his election,
so that should've given the Democrats the 60th seat needed to stop a
filibuster but it didn't because Democrat Ted Kennedy was absent and
couldn't vote because he was near death with brain cancer. He died on
August 25. And on January 19, 2010 a Republican won a special election in
Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat.*

* > if the federal government doesn’t balance its budget...*
>

*Yeah yeah I know, the sky will fall.  By the way, on January 8 your
favorite president said he would ask Congress for a $1.5 trillion defense
budget for the next fiscal year, this would be a 66 percent increase over
the 2026 defense budget that Congress just authorized.*

*Trump’s $1.5 Trillion Defense Budget*
<https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/trumps-15-trillion-defense-budget-should-not-come-surprise>

<https://www.cfr.org/expert-brief/trumps-15-trillion-defense-budget-should-not-come-surprise>*John
K Clark*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20260111/00eb5acd/attachment.htm>