01-16-2017, 09:50 AM
Quote:Three points here.
Ok, shoot.
Quote:First, perhaps the main reason they are cheaper is that alll the drug research is paid for by us, and they only pay the costs of manufacture. Legalizing reimportation of drugs would fix that, making them pay their fair share of the research costs, and reducing the share we have to pay.
Agreed.
Quote:Second, their systems aren't like Medicare. The most successful of the European systems, which is questionably more cost effective than our private insurance system after adjusting for drug prices mentioned above, essentially has the government paying for private insurance selected by the individual, and not paying the providers directly. So the idea that Medicare for all is the way to go is highly questionable.
I meant simply as a way to go from here to there. A Medicare as is for all would run into enormous fiscal pressures. The payments would need to be reformed, and it is an open question how that would play out.
As for those European systems, hey, if it works, relies on private insurance and private care providers, why fix it?
Quote:Third, if we're going to have a major revamp of the system, why not move to a genuinely free market system, or at least closer to it?
I'd be curious to see what you had in mind. Not that I am necessarily opposed, mind you.
Quote:It would be nice if those developed nations weren't so reliant upon us for their national security and so forth. How many large global commitments and defense agreements does the government France or any of the other developed nations have tied to them financially?
Xer,
French global committments might surprise you, most of the others? Probably not so much. Of course, since they (pretty much all of them) actually spend LESS as a fraction of their GDP on healthcare, and much of our national security spending over at least the past 15 years has been a bit of boondoggle, I'd say it's not really relevant, is it?