Medicaid/Medicare doesn't explain:
1. Why the price is insanely high for many services;
Docs & hospitals who take on medicare/medicaid patients must make up the losses that incur from treated them and being reimbursed for a fraction of hte cost to treat.
Illegal aliens MUST be treated at ERs for life-threatening illnesses and many public hospitals treat illegals beyond what is legally required. For instance, Parkland (Dallas Co public hosptal) has 16,000 births per year, the majority to illegal aliens. These folks are not even pursued for payment.
Other uninsured who flop down and get world-class treatment and then walk out on the bill.
2. Why there are shortages of doctors; or
Folks who are sharp enough to make it through med school have MANY options, many of which are more remunerative than doctoring,nowadays. What with the crap I listed above, add in malpractice insurance and med school loans, and it is no wonder.
BTW, if you think there is a shortage
now, just you wait until Obamacare is in place for a few years and the word-of-mouth commo trickles down to prospective doctors. My BIL will not stand for that sort of foolishness. He has long since paid off any debt and does not have to be a doctor to survive.
3. Why quality isn't measurably higher than in socialist systems.
Uh, it is not. The usual metric used here is mean age at death. Well, when comparing say, Sweden with its 95% ethnic Swedish population to the USA [with 13% black, 13% latin (1/4-1/2 of which are illegals)] one is now comparing apples with naranjas.
Those two minorities commit murder and are murdered all out of proportion relative to other components of the population. Same thing with drug use, poor diet (remember, the USA is the country where more of the POOR are fat, not the rich), and all sorts of other social pathologies.
Think that might have an effect on the mean age at death stat?
I find it amusing that statist types always point to lilly-white euro countries as exemplars of what we ought to be. Maybe if we were all Swedes or Dutchmen, it might work, for a while.
Oh, also, the eurosocialists list as stillborn many newborn we count as live births...many of who we actually go on to save, but not all, dragging down the favorite "health care" stat of statists.
For health care stats that are comparable, things like survival rates after one is diagnosed with cancer, the USA blows the socialist systems out of the water.
As has been noted here, it isn't mandatory for docs to take medicare. So why isn't the private system stepping up to the plate and supplying GPs, and other services, at a price that most people can actually afford?
They are,
you're just not paying attention.
Freaking
Wal-mart is bringing primary care to folks on the cheap:
http://www.walmart.com/cp/Clinics/554492~$50 for a visit.
One of these guys opened up 1/4mi from my house:
http://www.careclubusa.com/$55 if you aren't a member per visit, $30 if you join up and cough up $10 or $20 per month.
We sometimes use them, even though we have good insurance, because they are close & fast.
Both of the above are GP, primary care sorts of deals.
It's easy to bag out the socialist medicine systems around the world, but they tend to be more efficient by every measure, and the health outcomes for populations that live with those systems are measurably better than in the United States.
Some folks like to blame McDonald's. Others like to pretend like insurance companies don't make you wait or are responsive to your needs as a consumer (ha!). But the numbers are what they are.
Buddy, pass me what you are smoking.
For actual comparable health-care related metrics, the socialist systems suck hind teat:
Wait times to see doc/specialist
Wait times for diagnostic testing
Wait times for operations
Outcomes for people already sick, such as cancer survival rates
Pretty much everything except mean age at time of death. Which would be in America's favor if we only compared the Northern European lily white proportion of the USA to the lily white Northern European euro-socilaist paradises.
Just for shiites & giggles, let us look at life expectancy.
Date of Dat: 2009 est
Rank Country Years Diff Rel to #1 Pct Diff Rel to #1 Diff Rel to USA Pct Diff Rel to USA
1 Macau 84.36 0.00 0% 6.25 8%
2 Andorra 82.51 -1.85 -2% 4.40 6%
3 Japan 82.12 -2.24 -3% 4.01 5%
4 Singapore 81.98 -2.38 -3% 3.87 5%
5 Hong Kong 81.86 -2.50 -3% 3.75 5%
6 Australia 81.63 -2.73 -3% 3.52 5%
7 Canada 81.23 -3.13 -4% 3.12 4%
8 France 80.98 -3.38 -4% 2.87 4%
9 Sweden 80.86 -3.50 -4% 2.75 4%
10 Switzerland 80.85 -3.51 -4% 2.74 4%
11 San Marino 80.81 -3.55 -4% 2.70 3%
12 Israel 80.73 -3.63 -4% 2.62 3%
13 Iceland 80.67 -3.69 -5% 2.56 3%
14 Anguilla 80.65 -3.71 -5% 2.54 3%
15 Cayman Islands 80.44 -3.92 -5% 2.33 3%
16 Bermuda 80.43 -3.93 -5% 2.32 3%
17 New Zealand 80.36 -4.00 -5% 2.25 3%
18 Italy 80.20 -4.16 -5% 2.09 3%
19 Monaco 80.09 -4.27 -5% 1.98 3%
20 Liechtenstein 80.06 -4.30 -5% 1.95 2%
21 Spain 80.05 -4.31 -5% 1.94 2%
22 Guernsey 80.00 -4.36 -5% 1.89 2%
23 Norway 79.95 -4.41 -6% 1.84 2%
24 Jordan 79.85 -4.51 -6% 1.74 2%
25 Jersey 79.75 -4.61 -6% 1.64 2%
26 Greece 79.66 -4.70 -6% 1.55 2%
27 Austria 79.50 -4.86 -6% 1.39 2%
28 Faroe Islands 79.44 -4.92 -6% 1.33 2%
29 Malta 79.44 -4.92 -6% 1.33 2%
30 Netherlands 79.40 -4.96 -6% 1.29 2%
31 Luxembourg 79.33 -5.03 -6% 1.22 2%
32 Germany 79.26 -5.10 -6% 1.15 1%
33 Belgium 79.22 -5.14 -6% 1.11 1%
34 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 79.08 -5.28 -7% 0.97 1%
35 Virgin Islands 79.05 -5.31 -7% 0.94 1%
36 United Kingdom 79.01 -5.35 -7% 0.90 1%
37 Finland 78.97 -5.39 -7% 0.86 1%
38 Isle of Man 78.82 -5.54 -7% 0.71 1%
39 Gibraltar 78.79 -5.57 -7% 0.68 1%
40 Korea, South 78.72 -5.64 -7% 0.61 1%
41 European Union 78.67 -5.69 -7% 0.56 1%
42 Puerto Rico 78.52 -5.84 -7% 0.41 1%
43 Bosnia and Herzegovina 78.50 -5.86 -7% 0.39 0%
44 Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunh78.44 -5.92 -8% 0.33 0%
45 Denmark 78.30 -6.06 -8% 0.19 0%
46 Ireland 78.24 -6.12 -8% 0.13 0%
47 Portugal 78.21 -6.15 -8% 0.10 0%
48 Wallis and Futuna 78.20 -6.16 -8% 0.09 0%
49 United States 78.11 -6.25 -8% 0.00 0%
How many of those above the USA are mono-ethnic states?
How many of those above the USA have lower murder/crime rates?
How many of those above the USA make personal autos unreachable to the average citizen, forcing them the walk a whole lot more?
How many of those above the USA are oriental states where the customary diet is something like: a little fish, a little rice, veggies, some vile fermented sauce*...repeat as necessary?
* Nam Pla. Look it up.
