<div dir="ltr"><div>John-</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div>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."</div><div><br></div><div>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. </div><div><br></div><div><img class="gmail-size-full gmail-wp-image-24601" alt="CONCORD Scotland US" src="https://blogs-images.forbes.com/theapothecary/files/2015/08/CONCORD-Scotland-US.jpg?width=960"></div><div><br></div><div>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.</div><div><br></div><div>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.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 1:11 PM, John Clark <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 11:35 AM, Dylan Distasio </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif" dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:interzone@gmail.com" target="_blank">interzone@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div></span><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>Since you seem to be hung up on the longevity metric,</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">Yes silly me, I think living longer is often a rather good idea, especially if it cost less than dying sooner.</font></div></div><span><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>I would remind you that correlation does not imply causation,</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">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.</font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">If you believe that there is a bridge I'd like to sell you. </font></div><span><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>and that one stat you're bandying about does not tell the whole picture. </div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Why the hell not? What statistic is more important than cost versus life expectancy? </font></div></div><span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>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.</div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">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. </font></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> <font size="4"> John K Clark </font></div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br></blockquote></div><br></div></div>
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