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

To: Lane3 who wrote (4008)	1/18/2008 8:30:11 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

There are many countries that have a nationalized oil and gas industry. All of the Mideast countries, a few in South American, Norway in Europe, and our own state of Alaska. In China, the govt. still owns a big chunk. I don't know the current structure in Russia. But the prices of oil and gas are set on the world market, mainly by the consortium of OPEC countries. Most countries pass the cost on to consumers. They don't make it available to their citizens at below world market prices, with some exceptions such as Iran. China still does somewhat but is moving to world pricing. The state of Alaska owns its resources for the benefit of all its citizens. But as far as I know the price of gas is what it is elsewhere. Keep in mind that prices per gallon vary from state to state because of taxes the states put on them. US health care costs are set by US participants, i.e. docs, insurers, and pharmas. There's no world market that sets prices. So the structure of the two industries are very different. In terms of nationalising, it seems to me its like comparing apples and oranges.

To: Lane3 who wrote (4008)	1/19/2008 10:51:07 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I guess my question is why health insurance. We could perhaps get the price of gas down, as well, if we nationalized that industry. Why health insurance and hot oil and gas? I know this is not an oil and gas thread. But I'm wondering what special circumstances would have to exist for a capitalist to champion nationalization an industry. The major difference is that one is insurance and the other is production. Nobody is suggesting nationalizing the production of medical care; just the insurance. You don't buy 'gas insurance' and if you did it would be highly regulated. Insurance has always been highly regulated, everywhere. For good reason... it's a form of legalized gambling and susceptible to the same abuses. Apples (insurance) and Oranges (production and sales). You can argue that insurance shouldn't be a regulated industry, but that open a whole new can of worms.