The US has the best health care in the world?

mgb_phys

I suppose you could claim that the US has the best public transport in the world - because it has a space shuttle and everywhere else just has trains.

Office_Shredder

If there were space shuttles for 250 million Americans, then yeah, it probably would be the best public transport system in the world. Admit it, you'd move just to ride one.

And there are stories of Canadians going to America to get treatment. Therefore...?

If you have a healthcare system that can't treat the wealthiest members of society well, how can it possibly treat ANYBODY well? Besides, it's not the poorest members of society who don't have access to medical coverage, it's the people who are just above the government subsidisation line that get screwed

madness

Unless you live in a communist society, then you will most likely have the option of going private if you aren't satisfied with your national health care. I don't think wealthy people ever have a problem getting good healthcare. At least with the NHS everyone can get a decent level of healthcare no matter how much they earn (and the NHS really isn't that bad). I once had a conversation with an American where I asked him what he thought about not having government healthcare, and he told me he liked the fact that if a homeless guy broke his arm who had contributed nothing to society then he wouldn't be treated. I really thought that was a terrible way to look at things and I hope it's not a common point of view in America.

mgb_phys

I'd move to somewhere with the Holywood health care system where a team of 5 doctors is devoted just to me if I have more than one symptom.

I would also like the police system where half a dozen detectives, an entire forensic lab (and for some reason a mossad agent) + lots of helicopters are involved the next time my bike gets stolen.

turbo

Generally glossed over is the fact that much of Canada is VERY rural, and if there is more sophisticated diagnostic equipment, etc, available nearer in by crossing to the US instead of traveling the half-way across Canada, Canada's public health care system picks up the tab for the US medical care. The incidence of Canadians being treated in the US is NOT a clear case of rich Canadians choosing to come to the US. Very often (perhaps a majority - I don't know) are ordinary Canadians who live in very rural areas and the Canadian health care system willingly pays for care in the nearest US facility if there are no nearby Canadian facilities with equivalent resources.

This is not a reason to claim that the Canadian insurance system is inferior. It is actually more efficient and superior to a private carrier in that advanced diagnostics, etc, are not rationed by your location. We should realize that there are places in the US, as well, that can be many hours of travel from the nearest MRI facility, for example, and it doesn't make economic sense to set up MRI facilities in every little farming town of more than a couple of thousand people. Here in Somerset Country, in Maine, we have had to address that by contracting with a portable MRI service that brings a self-contained tractor trailer "lab" to the regional hospital on a scheduled basis. The hospital is located in the county seat - a "city" of less than 7000 and serves towns from at least 75 miles away, most of which have populations of several hundreds to a couple of thousand or so. There is no way that our regional hospital could finance and support a full-time MRI lab. I doubt that the population density in Canada's wheat-belt could support such advanced equipment either. US diagnostics can be the least-expensive and most effective option in that case.

Count Iblis

They can only get the same treatment everyone else can get, while they have the financial resources to pay for more. But I don't see this becoming a problem in the US.

Count Iblis

And then you'll die of cardiac arrest due to over-medication like Michael Jackson.

madness

I have friends studying political sciences who were told in lectures that America is in line with many third world countries in terms of health care. I imagine this refers to how much of the population can access good health care, since the rich in America do have access to good health care.

drankin

I'm American, I'm not rich, and I get excellent health care. If I don't feel like I get good treatment at one facility I can go to another provider. The "rich" can pay for their health care and of course it's going to be as good as they are willing to pay for. If you are a bum on the street you will get basic health care but you won't much of a choice as to what you get. As it should be. Health care is free market service here, just like most everything else.

It's not typical in American towns but even the police where I live had to compete and win the contract to work in our town. If they didn't provide a good service we have the ability to hire different police when their contract is up.

mgb_phys

So you collect money from everybody in the town, rich and poor, and force them to use the same single police force without any choice in which cop arrests them - sounds awfully socialist to me.

madness

Sounds anarcho-sydicalist to me haha

mgb_phys

Only if you take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting--
By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,--
But by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major--

drankin

It is, I don't need no stinkin poh-leese.

A free market system allows you to have the best services. When there is no competition the quality of a service suffers, of course.

madness

If a free market system allows the best services then why is Sweden at the top of the UN human development chart especially in terms of healthcare, when it has national healthcare and a socialist government?

mheslep

Where?

Astronuc

Interesting article that points to some of the problems with US healthcare.
Health Care in Crisis: Needless Costs, Needless Deaths
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090728/...20090727675410

And I've seen when the is competition the quality of service or product suffers - because people underbid, then cut costs, and provide less service, often at poorer quality. Competition also produces redundancy.

Quality is dependent on the integrity of the provider/produce/seller, and as we've seen in the meltdown of the economy, integrity is sorely lacking in many cases.

Astronuc

The knee.