[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

Dylan Distasio interzone at gmail.com
Tue Mar 28 12:54:05 UTC 2017


John-

As I'm sure you're aware, correlation does not imply causation.  This issue
is extremely complex and difficult to wade through, and your implication
that we should be on a single payer system (I'm not sure what I think on
that, but my political leaning immediately recoils at the thought) is not
very libertarian.

For one thing, the US subsidizes the rest of the world in terms of drug
prices:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-drug-prices/

For another, these single payer systems are also going broke, and you
inevitably get rationing (which is fine until you're one the short end of
that stick).

You also effectively get a government centralized entity deciding how to
allocate overall healthcare funds to various conditions.  I have seen few
problems that get better with a centralized bureaucratic entity making the
call.

You're also discounting genetics, homogenous populations, and other
socioeconomic factors including diet that may be influencing longevity
numbers.

I think it is a good idea to look at what these countries can teach us, and
I come away thinking single payer is not a good idea.

I do think the current US system is broken though (for many reasons); it
doesn't allow markets to effectively price.  I find an analogy in the US
experiments with deregulating energy prices at the wholesale level but not
allowing price to pass through to retail.  I don't know if that is a good
idea, but you can't have an effective market when one portion of it is
allowed to price and the other side is not.




On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 10:06 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

> The USA spends FAR more on healthcare than any other country on the planet
> and has done so for many decades, yet it doesn't seem to be getting much
> bang for the buck. In 2016 the USA spends $9451 per-person per-year on
> healthcare but is only #31 on the list of countries with the longest lived
> citizens; Japan is #1 on the longevity list and spend only $4150 per person
> per year, Australia is # 4 and spends $4420, and at  #31 is the USA which
> spends $9451. Every one of the top 30 longevity countries have 2 things in
> common:
>
> 1) They all spend far less on healthcare than the USA does.
> 2) Unlike the USA they all have Single Payer Healthcare.
>
> We are extropians and thus are believers in the scientific method, that
> means if a theory doesn't fit the facts it must be abandoned no matter how
> beloved it may be, and that includes political theories. So as a extropian
> do you think maybe those top 30 longevity countries can teach us something?
>
>
> John K Clark
>
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>
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