Bad medicine

8 comments on “Bad medicine ”

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1. Brett Dale 1

   18 April 2009 at 2:09 pm

   Well the free market is recovering, and is doing better than yuor socialist friends.
   • Jarvis Pink 1.1

     18 April 2009 at 2:43 pm

     “Well the free market is recovering”

     Ah, the famous Green Shoots. Or is it a Head Fake?

     http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2009/04/16/the-real-deal-rally-or-another-fake/

     Anyway, your optimism is heartwarming Brett, in contrast to those killjoys at the BRT:

     “As for business confidence, that is still shaky, according to a Business Roundtable survey yesterday, which said an economic revival is still more than six months away. In the interim, executives expect to cut more jobs and adjust to even lower sales.”

     BTW: who are these sinister Socialist Friends?
2. Santi 2

   18 April 2009 at 3:02 pm

   Capitalism is alive and well, whereas communism is dead while socialism continues to empoverish the lives of its citizens/slaves.
3. PhilBest 3

   18 April 2009 at 4:16 pm

   The US Health System is already actually around 50% “Socialised”, with “MediCare” and “MedicAid”.

   The US Private system actually “carries” substantial bad debt writeoffs because there are laws against determining “ability to pay” and withholding treatment on that basis. Note the hypocrisy inherent in both requiring this of the “Private” system, and using arguments that “everyone needs guaranteed health care” as the basis to provide “Public” care.

   Malpractice Insurance costs are exorbitant, a legacy of the habit of exorbitant “settlements” being sought and granted by adventurous lawyers, judges, and juries. This is a feature of the US system that other nations are well advised not to emulate. Note though, the hypocrisy inherent in the fact that “Public Health Care” is never obliged to bear the same penalty burden in the case of malpractice, as is “Private”.

   There is NO RATIONING in the US system other than that that has inevitably resulted where the State has become involved MedicAid and MediCare). Patients who need treatment and operations, GET that treatment – fast. One of the foremost reasons for the difference in cost between the USA’s private system, and “Public” health, is simply that the “Public” health systems have not provided even half the actual diagnosis and treatments and drugs to each patient that the USA’s private system has.

   Firstly, in a competitive market, hospitals and insurers do not want to get a bad reputation, so they are motivated to provide the best care. But besides that, lawmakers in the USA have tended to enact mandates that health insurance is to include a lengthy wish list of treatments and interventions – for, say, massage therapy and acupuncture; and in any case, where there have been court cases to decide whether a client is entitled to any particular treatment, the courts inevitably rule in favour of the client and against the insurer. Note the hypocrisy inherent in comparisons between the “cost of private health care in the USA” and that of Public Health Care elsewhere, which does not actually provide the same care, either in amount or quality, that “Private” care is expected to.

   “Public” health does not have the expenses that “Private” health does with vetting its service providers, negotiating services and prices, and preventing fraud. Some might argue that that is a point in favour of “Public” health, as these things are unnecessary expenses that divert from the actual provision of care. But in practice, “Public” health inevitably shows up very poorly in problem areas that the Private systems minimise precisely by going to these expenses.

   The longstanding treatment in the US, of taxation write-downs for employer-provided health insurance, results in the insured individual only bearing around 14% of the true COST of his own “health care”. This tends to incentivise the individual to maximise that “health care”, while increasing systemwide expense extremely disproportionately.
   • Felix 3.1

     19 April 2009 at 3:11 pm

     Um, you do realise that this cartoon isn’t about the health system, don’t you?
   • vinsin 3.2

     19 April 2009 at 3:21 pm

     Dude. Nice comment although it ends up being one long FAIL!
4. ripp0 4

   18 April 2009 at 5:38 pm

   What a gorgeous kiwi in that cartoon..?

   The artist captures an exact tone and pose required in the real thing.

   Perhaps the only thing in need is a voice.. mezzo would do that very nicely thank you.

   Go to it, guys!
5. Quoth the Raven 5

   19 April 2009 at 7:29 pm

   Just to see that there are many different views on healthcare I suggest reading this or this.People set up this absolute dichotomy between public and private and pick their side and think anything smelling of the other is terrible. Well, as always, there are many different ways to do things and some people propose a different private system to what the retarded right propose. It is patently obvious that the right’s version of private healthcare would be disatrous, but it is not the only version out there.

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