[ExI] Single Payer Healthcare

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Fri Mar 31 21:48:39 UTC 2017


On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 4:40 PM, Dan TheBookMan <danust2012 at gmail.com>
wrote:

​>
>> ​>​
>>  Factoid?? We're talking about the results of a experiment that lasted
>> ​ ​
>> decades involved about a billion people and cost trillions of dollars,
>> ​ ​
>> and the results are clear as a bell; like it or not single payer
>> ​ ​
>> countries get more bang for their buck, they live longer and spend
>> ​ ​
>> less, a lot less. As a libertarian I wish the facts could have produced
>> ​ ​
>> a different conclusion but reality doesn't give a damn what I prefer.
>
>
> ​> ​
> Whoa! The strict libertarian position is
> ​ [...]​
>

​Irrelevant. The USA system does not conform with the ​
strict libertarian position
​

​and ​n
either does the single payer system of the 30 countries that beat the hell
out of the USA system ​in both cost and quality. However the USA is closer
to the
strict libertarian position
​ than the single payer plan. As a libertarian I wish I could say it was
the other way around but I can not because I value the truth even more than
I value libertarianism. ​

​>> ​
>> ​I don't know which question of yours I've sidestepped,
>
>
> ​> ​
> Well, I've only posted them twice on March 28, so here goes for a third
> time (rewording them slightly in hopes this helps you to answer them):
>
> 1. What are the historical rates of life expectancy for all nations?
>

​In all the 31 nations I mentioned, including the USA, both the life
expectancy and the percentage of GNP spent on healthcare have increased,
some much more than others, and it is by examining those differential
increases we can learn things.     ​

2. Are there any nations with single payer systems that have shorter than
> the US life expectancy?
>

​I honestly don't know. I would guess the answer is yes but I don't know
for certain. I'm sure you could find out in a hour or two with a little
help from Google, I could too but I'm not going to because the answer
doesn't interest me. If there is such a country you can be certain they
spend dramatically less on healthcare than the USA, every country does, so
there would be no surprise and nothing to learn if their citizens have
shorter lives.  ​We can learn from the 30 countries that spend less and get
more not from the countries that spend less and get less.

​>
>> ​>​
>> ​but I know of a question of mine that you have sidestepped:  if
>> ​ ​
>> the 30 single payer countries I mentioned spent twice as much
>> ​ ​
>> on healthcare as the USA and yet their citizens had shorter
>> ​ ​
>> lives than the USA would you be complaining about sampling
>> ​ ​
>> errors and experimental bias?
>
>
​> ​
> No, I didn't sidestep your question.
>

​Well it sure seemed that way to me because I looked  and looked  but I
couldn't find a "yes" or a "no" anywhere.


> ​> ​
> it would be still be the correct thing to ask these questions about the
> data and not merely accept a single piece of data as the decisive element
> in our policy choices.
>

​This is not a ​
single piece of data
​!! This is the result of a experiment lasting decades involving a billion
people and trillions of dollars and no matter how you try to spin it the
less libertarian side won.  I really and truly wish it had gone the other
way but unlike Trump I refuse to wage war on reality.

John K Clark ​


>
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