Government can’t manage anything. Look at social security, it’s always on the verge of running out of money. Why would people think they can manage healthcare? Medicare and medicaid are terribly expensive parts of the annual budget, and they only cover some of the population.
That’s not what Universal health care is. And you can thank Reagan and the GOP for SS running out of money because they fucking stole it. I’m guessing you voted for them on that platform.
Attributing the failures of social security to Reagan and the GOP shows how uninformed you are on the issue. Reagans actions were in response to social security ALREADY being almost out of money. His plan obviously didn’t work. My point is that social security’s failure was (and still is) inevitable since governments, as an organization, simply can’t run programs like that on this scale due to: bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of knowledge (see central planning), political motivations outweighing the objectives of the program in decision making, lack of accountability, lack of flexibility and responsiveness to changes, and unstable funding.
What do you call the excessive bureaucracy, lack of accountability, political motivations, and unstable funding associated with private health insurance?
I had national health insurance in Japan. They have plenty of problems, some of which will / do affect their insurance, but in general while I was there, it was great. Why? Because the government does NOT try to manage it. They just pay the bills. We chose our own doctors and our own dentists. We paid a small fee for each visit, and they sent the bill to the government. (Or, however it worked - i didn’t look into all the details, just know that we didn’t have to pay nearly as much as is typical in the USA.) Of course, they did take about 10% out of my paycheck each month, iirc.
Just saying that the British national system, which I hear is (poorly) managed by the government and has some serious problems, is not the only system we could use for inspiration.
Great question. I’m not sure. I believe the government sets the prices - that would be in line with how they generally do things. For some things, I think the patient pays a set “co-pay” and for other things they pay a percent. I generally paid about $5 (500 yen or so) for getting dental cavities filled, but I had a CAT scan (iirc - it may have been some other big machine they stick you in) and don’t remember how much I paid, but it was not an amount that we had to worry about.
BTW, I still get new glasses when I visit Japan. About $100 to $300+ depending on the frames you choose, and the eye exam is included for free. This is without insurance (I got 2 new pairs last year, for about $400 total), and I’ve not lived or worked in Japan in over a decade.) Thinner lenses than in the USA, but perhaps not as safe. The store is called “Megane Ichiba”, and I believe it is a chain.
Point is though, that the glasses market in Japan is not as monopolized (or at least not as greedy) as the market in the USA.
Water systems in blue states seem to be doing quite well. Privatization is asking the fox to guard the henhouse, asking a profit-motivated organization to do anything but focus on doing the job in front of them.
You seem limited in imagination, knowledge, and understanding. Glad to not be your friend.
Government can’t manage anything. Look at social security, it’s always on the verge of running out of money. Why would people think they can manage healthcare? Medicare and medicaid are terribly expensive parts of the annual budget, and they only cover some of the population.
That’s not what Universal health care is. And you can thank Reagan and the GOP for SS running out of money because they fucking stole it. I’m guessing you voted for them on that platform.
Attributing the failures of social security to Reagan and the GOP shows how uninformed you are on the issue. Reagans actions were in response to social security ALREADY being almost out of money. His plan obviously didn’t work. My point is that social security’s failure was (and still is) inevitable since governments, as an organization, simply can’t run programs like that on this scale due to: bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of knowledge (see central planning), political motivations outweighing the objectives of the program in decision making, lack of accountability, lack of flexibility and responsiveness to changes, and unstable funding.
What do you call the excessive bureaucracy, lack of accountability, political motivations, and unstable funding associated with private health insurance?
I had national health insurance in Japan. They have plenty of problems, some of which will / do affect their insurance, but in general while I was there, it was great. Why? Because the government does NOT try to manage it. They just pay the bills. We chose our own doctors and our own dentists. We paid a small fee for each visit, and they sent the bill to the government. (Or, however it worked - i didn’t look into all the details, just know that we didn’t have to pay nearly as much as is typical in the USA.) Of course, they did take about 10% out of my paycheck each month, iirc.
Just saying that the British national system, which I hear is (poorly) managed by the government and has some serious problems, is not the only system we could use for inspiration.
How do they establish prices? Is it a negotiation of some sort? What’s the process look like?
Great question. I’m not sure. I believe the government sets the prices - that would be in line with how they generally do things. For some things, I think the patient pays a set “co-pay” and for other things they pay a percent. I generally paid about $5 (500 yen or so) for getting dental cavities filled, but I had a CAT scan (iirc - it may have been some other big machine they stick you in) and don’t remember how much I paid, but it was not an amount that we had to worry about.
BTW, I still get new glasses when I visit Japan. About $100 to $300+ depending on the frames you choose, and the eye exam is included for free. This is without insurance (I got 2 new pairs last year, for about $400 total), and I’ve not lived or worked in Japan in over a decade.) Thinner lenses than in the USA, but perhaps not as safe. The store is called “Megane Ichiba”, and I believe it is a chain.
Point is though, that the glasses market in Japan is not as monopolized (or at least not as greedy) as the market in the USA.
Water systems in blue states seem to be doing quite well. Privatization is asking the fox to guard the henhouse, asking a profit-motivated organization to do anything but focus on doing the job in front of them.
You seem limited in imagination, knowledge, and understanding. Glad to not be your friend.