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

To: Katelew who wrote (3737)	1/11/2008 1:24:05 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

it seems to me that it's simply not suited for capitalist solutions I take your point. It is different. But I don't know how much of that difference is inherent and how much is just the way things have evolved. We build infrastructure around the current scenario. Change the scenario and you get a different infrastructure. We don't see ads which say 'two for one hip-replacements' or 'gall-bladder surgery, 20% off in the month of January'. We do see that in those areas not routinely covered by insurance. You see two for one laser eye surgery, for example, or medications. Sure, hip replacements would never be handled that way but there is lots of opportunity for expanding the approach to, say, dermatologists. And particularly tests. Doctors send patients to the testing outfits with which they are familiar. It's comfortable for them to get blood test reports with all the numbers in familiar places and annoying if you go elsewhere. But labs could compete on price if our culture were oriented that way and there were some industry standardization and more automation. We don't have a Consumer Reports function now but, in a different environment, those things would spring up. Then doctors and patients could shop around for price, convenience, quality--all the things we look for in other products. Not for everything, but for routine things. So while I take your point, I recognize that we cannot look at the status quo as a constant. There is likely a lot more opportunity for competition without sacrificing quality than currently in place. There's just been no incentive for a support system to develop. There was a time when you had to pay a bundle for a simple will but no longer. That could work for lots of medical procedures if prices were more transparent and the incentive were there.