Can We Really Justify the American Healthcare System on Any Measure?

[Dog Walker]

Be careful of mortality statistics for European countries.  Don't forget that most of them, especially Germany, lost a large portion of an entire generation that would just be coming into their '70's, 80's and 90's right now.  The number of potential centenarians is greatly reduced.

Germany had millions killed of all ages during the war.  Russia has never recovered from some 20 million killed during the war and millions killed by Stalin's induced famines  and purges before the war.

The Netherlands lost a large number of people of these age ranges too due to the bombing of civilians by both Germany and the Allies.  Rotterdam alone was completely flattened and tens of thousands of people were killed.  The entire Jewish population was eliminated in the Netherlands and several other countries.

There is simply a smaller group of people who might become over 100 years old.

[FayeforCure]

Single payer holds down cost......... maybe but our system would screw it up.

My dad got into the doughnut hole on his perscription drugs plan by $124. The Government decided to issue checks to Medicare folks in the amount of $250 to help with the doughnut hole. He got the $250 check to cover his $124.

I agree Overstreet, our system is too fragmented and difficult to administer.

That's why the expanded Medicare system people can buy into still would be cumbersome, as rates would vary by age, the way it was proposed.

It would just be easier to be automatically covered for basic care by virtue of being born in the US as it is in most civilized nations.

Then if people want additional "luxury" coverage, they can buy their own additional insurance as is possible even in Canada.

[urbanlibertarian]

Britain's National Health Service begins rationing surgeries to cut costs:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cataracts-hips-knees-and-tonsils-nhs-begins-rationing-operations-2327268.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Sigma]

So he just woke up one morning and said "screw it!  I'm cutting funds for no reason - except that Murdock told me to"?

[Sigma]

well, at least its not Bush's fault.

oh, and do you have any facts to back up that claim?  not that I don't believe you or anything, I just want to be sure in case someone asks me.

[avonjax]

EVERYTHING that has happened since 2000 is Bush's fault.

[Dog Walker]

Surely there's some blame left over for Cheney.

[urbanlibertarian]

Britain's National Health Service begins rationing surgeries to cut costs:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cataracts-hips-knees-and-tonsils-nhs-begins-rationing-operations-2327268.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Directly in response to Rupert Murdock backed Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron's arbitrary cutting of funds to the service.

Come on urban libertarian, you are quicker on the uptake than this.  You can't half fund something and then point to it as a failure.

You could do the same thing with the military and the postal service as well.

That's kinda the point.  When you have a government monopoly the level of service will change depending on who's in power.  When a service is provided by the marketplace the quality and the cost is determined by supply, demand and competition.

[urbanlibertarian]

From The Atlantic, 11th Circuit rules against individual mandate:

The 11th Circuit vs. the Health Care Law: A Manifesto
By Andrew Cohen

Aug 13 2011, 10:23 AM ET 28

A bad week for the White House got worse Friday when a federal appeals court in Atlanta struck down the "individual mandate" portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Whatever else it portends, the 2-1 decision by a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals guarantees that the United States Supreme Court will have to resolve this legal dispute on its merits, probably by next spring. Even if they want to, the justices in Washington won't be able to duck this one.

It took the 11th Circuit 304 pages to announce its findings and conclusions in Florida et al. v. Dept of Health and Human Services: The "individual mandate" provision of the law, which requires the uninsured to buy health insurance, violates the Constitution because it is beyond Congress' power to regulate such activity. But other provisions of the new law, including its expansion of Medicaid coverage, which also were struck down by a Florida trial judge in January, are permissible. In other words, as bad as this ruling may be for supporters of the Affordable Care Act, it could have been much worse.

Whole article here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/08/the-11th-circuit-vs-the-health-care-law-a-manifesto/243531/