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Originally Posted by LivinLOS
Though of course the social states of Europe means its aint free and in fact a free market encourages price competition and less waste (whats better at efficiently running a task, a company or a government ??).. Basically no system is free is all either collectively paid (tax) or personally paid..
The UK is a leaner social system but NHS care is pretty bad these days.. They nearly resulted in the loss of my leg (MRSA infection) and royally screwed up my old mans leg until he moved to private cover to fix it..
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The way I look at it is that we pay for it, but don't get it. The amount of money spent on guns and bombs, and logistics for armies half a world away, could easily pay for it and have a healthy sum left for a normal defense force. And there is plenty of other things they throw the money away on, as well.
As for the free market encouraging price competition, I think that is what you see in LOS, where it seems to me that everyone can afford to go see a doctor. Here, there is absolutely no competition in the medical industry, whatsoever. The charges have nothing to do with what people can or would be willing to pay. Who would pay $4,000 for a visit to the emergency room? My cousin did twice, but only because he thought he was dying. On any given day, the emergency room is full of people with a cold or flu. Those people would not be there if they didn't have insurance. The insurance companies get overcharged by the hospital, incurring huge bills that no one would normally pay, unless they were both rich and in fear of their life. And even a lot of rich people sould as soon die, as pay what they charge the insurance company.
Also the American medical association has for decades manipulated the cost of health care by keeping limited the number of medical schools in this country. If there were more medical schools, there would be a lot more doctors, and they could not charge as much. As it is, there are an awful lot of doctors who come here from foreign countries, because we don't have enough doctors. Then the doctors complain that they are overworked. There is no competition between doctors, whatesoever.
It is a very bizaare system here and has nothing to do with free enterprise!
And there are a ton of honest working people, who can't afford to pay for insurance. When they or their child gets seriously ill, then they have to quit their job, spend all their money, and go on the dole, just so they can get medical care from the goverment. Honest people made to be dishonest because their child will die if they don't go on the dole.
And insurance companies can be worse than the govt. to deal with. My ex's cousin(who is a friend of mine) got cancer, and needed an operation. He went to the doctor assigned by the insurance company who recommended against the operation. He admitted that the operation was risky, that he was inexperienced, and was fairly certain the operation would kill him, if the dr. dit it himself. Chances of survival he was told are less than 10%. He then went to a dr. who was known to be an expert in the field. He told him that he had performed the surgery numerous times with success and the chances of success if he did it were 95% good. He requested that the insurance company approve the operation with the experienced doctor, whose fees were higher, and they absolutely refused.
Rod had some money saved, so he went ahead with operation, which was well over $50,000 if I recall correctly. It was money he had saved for a down payment on a house. But it was get the operation or suffer a long. slow, agonizing death. He recovered fully, paid the bill, and hired an attorney to sue the insurance company. He got a settlement, but it only amounted to less than half of what he spent on the operation and the lawyer.
This is not an unusual case. If Rod was not as smart and assertive as he was, then he most likely would have had the inexperienced doctor and died. To accomplish what he did in the face of the excruciating pain he was suffering every day, was nothing less than incredible.