Your father covered all his stuff up to 1981. So did my father except he was born in 1912 died in 2001.
What has changed since your father's lifetime and mine. Well in the 60's and 70's we started our war on poverty. Which has been as successful as our war on drugs.
Now 1/6th of our pop is getting an additional $636 dollars a month for food for a family of four(doesn't matter where or local COL).
Since the Government has gotten involved the medical costs have skyrocketed. Lets look at another example. Education. Used to be a parents would work 2 jobs to ensure that the children could go college. The cost of education skyrocketed now 2 jobs won't pay for the cost of education. Social Security provides for people's retirement. People stopped saving.
Do you start to see a correlation.
Funny thing is what are the 2 examples we are definitely given of Planets that provide all those health care payments. Haven and Split. Wonderful caste systems.
Most of those nice socialized country's (not a very good term as most of aren't as socialism is generally understood) as PeterZ showed contribute not a whole lot,relatively, toward new processes, drugs or procedures. Because the US is all monied up.
Bad thing about all this is because of the now falling R&D staffs those new drugs and such aren't going to be generated any more or at least not as rapidly. Pretty soon we will have people, like happened to Anton, unable to man their sensors due to an impacted wisdom tooth because Dr's won't be able to make enough money to encourage the gifted to serve. A dentist friend of mine already recommends against it.
Though if you want to institute a dueling code I could compromise on the health care issue, some.
Might cut down on some of those frivolous lawsuits.
I would also recommend reading "Positive Feedback" in
Rx for Choas by Christopher Anvil. Its a Baen book.
Have fun,
T2M
For that wonderful system in Canada here's what somebody wrote about it on the bar. I got his permission to repost it other places.
Rob Thompson wrote:OK - buttons appropriately pushed - incoming fire. One - Rationing - what in the bloody hell do you think a waiting list is? It's rationing - plain and goddamned simple. I don't care if anyone thinks my facts are wrong - I'm the one living under this system - so take your second and third hand information and shove it into the orifice you deem best to use it.
Two - Death Panels - you think this is wrong. Personal first hand experience - My father was being treated for two types of cancer simultaneously. His oncologist told him outright (I was there) - Mr. Thompson - I'm sorry - we have to suspend treatment as there's no viable chance of beating this. We will offer you palliative care until you pass away. 20 days later I buried my father. This happened in July of 2012. The man was a veteran with 35 years of service to his country and one of his last comments (2 days before he died) was that "They just threw me away". So - whether or not you choose to believe it - in Canada - the doctors WILL decide life and death. Basically, if you're a senior - you're screwed if the doctors determine the resources expended aren't worth it. For further evidence - check the mortality rates of British NHS towards end of the fiscal year.
Finally - private insurance. Yes - we have private "insurance" for drugs, dental, vision and other non governmental care. You cannot buy coverage, as an example, for governmentally supplied health coverages. Calling me a liar isn't the best way to make that point. I have been involved in the sales and marketing of health insurance in the US as well as Canada. I am a licensed insurance broker and professional insurance development officer - have been for the last 15 years. I know what the regulations are that I must live with - I cannot offer packages that the government covers.
I have said this for many years on this bar. The Canadian system isn't nearly as effective nor is it nearly as efficient as the US system. I have lived in both countries and have experienced both systems - as a manager of health insurance sales as well as the recipient of health insurance.
As an addendum - there's something that hasn't been addressed about the Canadian system versus the US system - Gatekeepers. Under the US system - the HMO and/or the insurer may act as a gatekeeper. Generally (note this term) their gatekeeping is more about using their network of physicians and access to same. In Canada - you may only receive advanced treatment by a specialist ONLY by referral by a family doctor. Oh - and we have a family doctor shortage (most have gone to the States) which makes getting specialized treatment even more difficult. When we were in the States - my wife needed treatment for PCOS (ask Doc Krin about that lovely condition). Our family physician in Columbia, SC recommended one of his med school profs. Recommended - we were able to call him ourselves and saw him within 3 days. In Canada, after our return, even with med records/charts in hand, she couldn't get a referral to a specialist because the MD we had to use (public clinic) didn't accept the diagnosis of PCOS.
We are childless because of this and while we have accepted this fact, plus the fact that I am now 50 and wife is closing in on same - the bitterness has not receded.
Oh - and one final point of rationing. For professional reasons we are moving to another town 2.5 hours away from our current home. We are keeping our family doctor here in Ottawa because the town we're moving to - we have a minimum 2 year wait before another family doctor can take us. I'm diabetic and she has fibromyalgia - we have to travel 3 hours to continue medically necessary care. Want to take another shot at telling me that healthcare isn't rationed in Canada? Really - hope you love your Obamacare - just pray you never need a doctor.
BrightSoul wrote:The real issue is the solution that was forced down everyone's throats. There are viable solutions out there both private and single payer (government) systems but none of them were permitted to be fully explored by the assorted special interests in this country. When I talk special interests I mean on both sides of our ludicrous ideological divide.
I fully beliee that the deal worked out was a deliberate effort to sabotage any functional coverage system that would insure 100% of our population at a minimum level.
Think on this, My granfather was born in 1918, he was taking care of his own healthcare need by the age of 16 which would be 1934. From 1934 to 1981 when he died he payed cash for all of his family's needs. This included the last 3 years of my Grandmother;s life as she spent them in the hospital and his own care after having his first stroke at 48 years old. Who in the upper middle class could afford this today? Anyone? I thought not.
There are solutions, unfortunately our government and those very same special interests want it there way or no way so they'll cripple any effort to make something that works.
