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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (3094)	12/5/2007 12:43:06 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

<<<With a market system, supply and demand and all that can be reasonably anticipated. With a political system, it's a crap shoot.>>> Your example with Walmart is a good one. There are companies willing to make a strategic investment and get into Walmart at a loss or near loss. Same thing would apply to companies dealing with the government. There are plenty of examples where a free market system is much more efficient than a command or political system, but there are also examples where a command (political) economy works better. For me, personally, a completely free market for doctors is not the way to go. From personal experience (I have a lot of experience with doctors), I know people without insurance and they have a hard time getting an appointment even when they are able to pay. The system is not even that great for people with insurance. Unless the doctor is totally incompetent, it takes a long time to get an appointment. When you get to see one, you have a long wait in the waiting room. Even if the office is very efficient and they honor appointments on time, you are limited to the amount of time you have with them. Most of the time, the doctor does not give you enough information. After all this is a free market system. You are not a doctor and therefore you can't think fast enough to ask all the questions you need to ask during your visit. They make it very difficult for you to reach them after your visit. Doctors will (for the most part) address only the problems that you can verbalize and since you are not a doctor chances are you are not able to verbalize everything that is wrong with you. What ends up happening is that doctors wait until you are seriously ill and then address the problem. Often, when symptoms becomes clear, it is already too late. It is rare that a doctor would take proactive measures to treat a problem in its very early stages on their own. If we had universal health care, this model can change. Doctors do not have to be business people. That is something they are not trained to do. They could do what they are trained to do. It is obvious that a free market system works best for business in general, but it is not that clear for all aspects of healthcare.