Quote:
Originally posted by Donut:
quote:
Originally posted by Cerek the Barbaric:
So I will take our expensive health care system over the socialized, free alternative any day of the week.
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You are aware that we also have a private healthcare system as well Cerek, which runs in tandem with the NHS? No one who has the money or has health insurance need wait for even the most trivial procedure.
I can't comment on the Canadian system but rather than rely on anecdotal evidence as you have done I can tell you that the "socialized" health service in the UK is far from free. The benefit is that it is free "at point of use".
And we don't vet people before we treat them so you would get all the treatment and aftercare that you needed with your crohn's.
I have experienced many facets of the NHS over the past couple of years. From births to terminal illnesses. It's far from perfect, but I wouldn't swap it for anything else.
One comment about the French system - it does work well because it's so well resourced. But remember the failings on the French Social Services during the summer which contributed to the deaths of thousands. You pays your money and you takes your choice. [/QUOTE]Private Health care systems are bad from a social justice perspective in that some people can't afford it but they're also
extremely bad from everyone elses perspective, yet no one really realises it. Most private health care systems, the US is a good example, cost about 3-4 times as much per person per year as the UK system does, yet the US is actually less healthy for all of that money.
The reason the French system is best in the world and ours has problems with waiting lists is that they aren't afraid to spend money on it. We hear a lot about how much of a drain the NHS is on the public purse but in reality we spend less on health care than pretty much any other developed nation. If we spent as much as france does, which is still only a fraction of what the US spends per person, we'd be laughing.
Anyway, private health care systems get beaten in every area hands down by public ones with the exception of consumer choice. I'm happy to lose consumer choice in this area as consumers aren't equipped to choose in this particular market anyway. The average consumer doesn't know if a doctor is good or not and doesn't know if the treatment course prescribed is the right one. Thats just life, no system will change that yet the private system assumes it isn't true. Health care cannot be treated just like any other good as it has fundamental differences from most goods that mean a market will always be inefficient.
[ 02-07-2004, 05:47 AM: Message edited by: Barry the Sprout ]