DGDevin wrote:
Tim Daneliuk wrote:

¹"Socialized" in this context means anything that puts people's
health ahead of the profits of health care corporations.

And if profit is minimized or dismissed, where shall the resources
for research and delivery come from? What will attract the brightest
minds to bleeding-edge medical research? Who's going to bother
capitalizing the estimated $1B it takes to get a new wonder drug to
market? Shall we all just become slaves to the state and let the
political oligarchs run everything?

Did I say we need to eliminate or even minimize profits? No? Then
why did you react as if I did? I believe in free enterprise, and
profit is a powerful motivation for the benefit of the public
*provided there is a savvy cop on the beat*. Unfortunately putting
profit ahead of all else can also lead insurance companies to deny
treatment to people who need it. Or it can lead doctors to set up
imaging clinics which bill insurance companies for needless x-rays or
MRIs etc., and we all pay for that. Drug companies--well anyone
paying attention has seen them conceal studies showing dangerous side
effects of their products and so on, all in the name of profit. No,
I'm not saying we should make medicine unprofitable, I'm saying we
need to guard against the mindset in which executive bonuses and
stock options and quarterly earnings are *all* that matters.

There will always be people who game the system, whatever the system might
be.

Have you ever heard of an American going to Canada or the UK for treatment?

Now, to be fair, there is a growing market in "medical tourism" where folks
who need heart-valve replacements, breast augmentation, or whatever, go to
places like Mexico or India for top-quality but low-priced procedures. Those
episodes are, however, driven by economics, not quality of care.

As for life-expectancy as a metric for health care efficacy, the U.S. has
conditions that effect life expectancy that many other nations do not, or at
least not in the same number:

* Gang warfare (France excepted)
* Executions of criminals (Iran excepted)
* Deaths due to Islamic Extremists (Spain, UK, Indonesia excepted)
* Vehicle accidents (UK, Australia, and other places that drive on the wrong
side excepted)
* Invaders of homes where the resident is armed to the teeth
* Many who just need killin'