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

To: dybdahl who wrote (18275)	7/9/2010 9:50:29 AM
From: i-node	Respond to of 42652

>> I mean costs as a percentage of GDP. For USA, this percentage is high with an upwards trend. Any continuation of that would meant that you would one day hit 50% of GDP in health care costs. Probably unrealistic, so what will stop it from rising to that level? Well, I don't have any idea what ICU costs are a percent of GDP in the US and to be truthful, I don't know how one makes any rational comparison of such costs between the US and some other country. While health care costs in the US are insanely high compared with other nations, I think it is difficult to point to an object, e.g., ICU, and say, "That is a culprit". Because in the US we sometimes allocate resources in a way that would be considered strange in other places. And we have the government influence mucking with the competitive environment. I actually believe health care is a great value in America, even though it is more expensive. If you want great technology, if you want leading edge treatments and cures, you have to pay for it. That is why the US leads the world in the treatment, for example, of many cancers and other expensive to treat diseases. And it is the reason the US is where there are disproportionately large numbers of treatment breakthroughs. I'm okay with that.