[ExI] Yet another health care debate

Stathis Papaioannou stathisp at gmail.com
Sun Sep 21 09:11:29 UTC 2008


2008/9/21 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:

> Now one thing that simply amazes me is the tremendous interest
> evinced on this list by non-U.S. citizens that the U.S. should
> adopt socialized medicine for the U.S., i.e., provide health benefits
> without charge.
> (Quite on the other hand, it's very EASY to understand why non-U.S.
> citizens would be keenly interested in the financial laws and policies
> of the United States, since there are necessarily so many international
> repercussions to the economic success of the U.S.   But why such an
> avid interest in U.S. health care, I can't help but wonder?)
>
> Whether it's from Canada, New Zealand, Great Britain, or Australia,
> the posters on this list from those countries never miss an opportunity
> to suggest that for the Americans, only the government solution makes
> sense.

Isn't the simple answer that it must stick out as an obvious deficit
to those on the outside? It's not as if all these posters are running
down every aspect of U.S. society.

(And BTW, publicly funded medicine is not "without charge": someone
has to pay for it. The two hoped for benefits are that it provides
better access for all, and that it does this more cheaply than the
alternative. There is a calculation to be made if it isn't actually
cheaper - how much improved access does it take to justify decreased
efficiency? - but otherwise it's as they say a no-brainer.)



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou



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