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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction
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To: Solon who wrote (40031)9/10/2005 2:08:21 PM
From: Constant Reader  Read Replies (1) of 90947
 
That reply was chock full of things to follow up on. I'll choose one from column "C:"

The last thing wanted in public health care is to encourage neurotics to use it over and over again because it gets them out of the house.

This is a definite problem in American medicine, particularly fee-for-service plans such as the ones slowly destroying the auto companies. When the $100 deductible became common in the late 50's, early 60's, $100 was a lot of money. Today, it is nothing and usage skyrockets as soon as it is passed. I think this is also something of a cultural problem, in that people are more than willing to abuse something they think is delivered for "free" after that point.

HMO's attempt to control that by using the primary care physician as the gatekeeper, and are generally successful. As ever-increasing numbers of Americans are choosing or are forced into HMO's, the argument for nationalized health care will probably gain strength, IMO.

However, there are two great hurdles to that idea that may prevent it ever happeninig. The first is that trial lawyers control one political party here and have great influence within the other party's congressional caucus. There is a lot of money to be made in healthcare-related lawsuits (see: Edwards, John) and it seems to me that they will never give that up. The second is that the United States government is horribly inefficient at delivering services of any type on a national basis and there is no reason to believe that would suddenly be as efficient with regard to this subject.

Unlike Canada, I doubt any system devised in the US would permit state authorities much, if any, control or influence over the system. In the name of "fairness," it would be "one size fits all."
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