Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito who wrote (105791)	3/10/2009 10:20:59 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 541761

That law could easily be changed. It's not the foundation of their entire system. Yes and no. Sure, they could change it. As for foundation, I agree it's not a weight-bearing pillar, but it is deeply tied in with the notion of equality of health care that drives much of the effort to nationalize. I'm not among those who is affected by that attitude so I don't have a good sense of to what extent it's a notion amenable to moderation vs purity. I recall reading a piece on the comparison of various systems a few years ago where the topic was discussed with regard to the British system. Of all the systems, the British had the one most inclined to enforce equality by limiting what was available privately. It also said that the trend in Britain has been toward greater private availability. So I suppose that there's a continuum with a fulcrum that shifts with the political winds. That the Brits would entertain let alone practice the extreme in some cases was startling to me. I can't imagine the US ever going that far, even if we had a national system. But, thinking ahead, in any national system, if costs get high enough and resources get thin enough, rationing occurs. When rationing occurs, do we allow the safety valve of private services for those who want and can afford them or do we all suffer together equally. There would surely be some advocates in the US on the equality side of that.