[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

William Flynn Wallace foozler83 at gmail.com
Tue Mar 28 13:58:09 UTC 2017


Dylan wrote:
I do think the current US system is broken though (for many reasons); it
doesn't allow markets to effectively price.
---------------------
Why doesn't Congress allow our health agencies to bargain with drug
companies over prices?

bill w

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 7:54 AM, Dylan Distasio <interzone at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20170328/00d09062/attachment.html>


More information about the extropy-chat mailing list