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

To: TimF who wrote (3281)	12/16/2007 11:46:58 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Lower pay for medical workers, esp. doctors, regulation of drug prices, usually fewer medical scanners, in a number of cases rationing by queue instead of price, lower auto accident and overall accident rates, lower total wealth in most cases (premium health care is in economic terms a luxury good, as you get richer you pay more for it), when private insurance is allowed it doesn't face the requirements for very extensive coverage that if often faces in the US (look at the cost of health insurance in New York State for an extreme version of this idea)... You take a bunch of factors that may apply in one market but don't in others... and ignore other factors that are counter your argument. You use terms like "usually", "in a number of cases", "most cases". Frankly, give or take a bit (unmeasurable), all those factors balance out. Again, we are talking about a 100% difference in cost.

To: TimF who wrote (3281)	12/17/2007 5:16:58 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Respond to of 42652

"There are clear reasons why they are less expensive .." Lower pay for medical workers, esp. doctors, regulation of drug prices, usually fewer medical scanners, in a number of cases rationing by queue instead of price, lower auto accident and overall accident rates, lower total wealth in most cases (premium health care is in economic terms a luxury good, as you get richer you pay more for it), when private insurance is allowed it doesn't face the requirements for very extensive coverage that if often faces in the US (look at the cost of health insurance in New York State for an extreme version of this idea)... That is a good summary of some of the major reasons why socialized medicine is cheaper. (With all that the word cheaper implies.)