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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (215969)	2/2/2007 6:07:04 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Because the current system we have in the US, which is the closest approximation to the free market, has failed miserably both in terms of costs and in terms of outcomes as compared to other countries. This is where I disagree with you and Geode. The same can be said of any product or service that a for-profit company offers. Yet you don't see a problem with other goods and services. I don't understand the difference you see. But that adversarial structure becomes very problematic with regard to health care, esp. in the area of chronic and/or catastrophic illnesses. No more so than any other life critical goods and services. Look at the aircraft industry, or airline service. Things like fake components (lower quality materials, lower cost) do exist and are a threat, but you deal with the problem in other ways. You don't use that as an excuse to say the government should run a single national airline, and it should be non-profit. Against these considerations and others, a medicare type system , by its very structure could be simpler, less costly, more straightforward, and more efficient for healthcare providers to conform to. I could say the same about our communications network. How good would our technology be today, and what cost would service come at, if America had nationalized telephone service for the last 4-5 decades? Nationalized, non-profit, monopolies are terrible at innovation. I'd perhaps agree with you if I thought the medical field did not need innovation. Instead, I think abundant innovation is needed in the field. That is one of the most important reasons I think socialized medicine is a disaster.