[ExI] Private and government R&D

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:56 PM, Stathis Papaioannou<stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/7/18 Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com>:
>> --- On Fri, 7/17/09, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 2009/7/18 Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com>:
>>>>  Why is the
>>>>> Canadian system so much more efficient?
>>>>
>>>> ### Why do you say stuff like that?
>>>
>>> Canadian taxpayers pay less per capita for their universal
>>> public
>>> health system than US taxpayers do for their more limited
>>> system. That
>>> makes the US public health system much less efficient. Why
>>> is that?
>>
>> Is that the measure of efficiency? Are you sure Canadians, too, are enough like Americans that that comparison makes sense?
>
> Economic efficiency, what you get for your money. In Canada it's
> almost all publicly provided, while in the US only some of it is
> publicly provided, but at greater cost. There is then the additional
> issue of health outcomes: does the US system, having a greater private
> component, lead to better outcomes than in Canada albeit at a higher
> total price? In fact the evidence points to the opposite, but even if
> it were the case, the Canadian health consumer would still be
> financially better off than his American counterpart taking out
> private insurance to cover any deficit in the public system.
>
> I would have thought that Canada is closer to the US demographically
> than most other countries in the world. Canadians are thinner, but
> tackling lifestyle issues is part of the job description of primary
> health care providers, and is in fact one of the main arguments in
> favour of universal health care.
>
### It's all crap, you know?

The main thing is, we should not commit violence. End of
(consequentialist) moral story. It is wrong to initiate violence, no
matter what a fine yarn about low cost and helping the poor the
socialist teachers instilled in your mind.

Rafal