Yikes! 1 in 4 Americans lack health insurance!

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by UberKruX
is this 75 million employed?

or do you just want to give the derelict health insurance for nothing in return?

Did you think our unemployment rate was 25%?

-derelict unemployed person

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by DuncanK


Did you think our unemployment rate was 25%?

-derelict unemployed person

i should have stated that as "how much of this 75 million is unemployed / not legally employed"

duly noted.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DuncanK
In many ways the current system in the US is very inefficient. For example, there are several hospitals competing with each other in the same area and the facilities are not used near capacity. The competition prevents economies of scale.

There's also massive overhead in the private insurance system. Twenty-three percent of each dollar spent in the private system goes to overhead, less than ten percent in Medicare.

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
che: There's a difference between entitlement programs and human rights. You seriously demean one by comparing it to the other.

If I work as hard as eveyone else why shouldn't I get health care just because the economy is organised in such a way as not to provide my basic necessities so that I can afford them.

[Starchild]

The problem in Britain is that we've gone the exact opposite direction of the USA and built a purely socialistic healthservice and then added pieces of the freemarket to its internal functions. The entire thing creaks but never quite sinks, like a video of Titantic stuck on loop. To bring our spending up to the European average, we'd have to, I believe, double what we currently spend. However, that's not a fix all solution. We also need to devolve power over decisions and spending all the way to the most local level possible along with a bunch of other chances (vote Lib Dem!).

The NHS is a good metaphor for most of the UK in general. It all creaks and borders on collapse but everyone unconsciously recognises that it's far too much trouble and bother to actually go all the way and let it fall apart.

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by UberKruX


i should have stated that as "how much of this 75 million is unemployed / not legally employed"

duly noted.

But you still believe unemployed people are derelict?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by DuncanK
Isn't the problem in Britain that not enough is spent on heath care? I think the US spends much more on Health Care.

Nearly £70 billion will be spent on the NHS in 2003-4.

[MikeH]

Back of the envelope calculation... assuming 60 million people in the UK, 320 million in the US and $1.5 to the £ ...

Similar spending in the US would mean they had to spend about $557 billion a year on healthcare.

[MikeH]

That doesn't include any UK private healthcare spending obviously.

[chequita guevara]

We spend more than that. A lot more.

[MikeH]

Can't find anything quickly that covers their public healthcare spending but their overall spending seems to be about double per person.

[DuncanK]

I think we spend more than that. It's like 20 or 25% of our GDP.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by DuncanK


But you still believe unemployed people are derelict?

der·e·lict ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dr-lkt)
adj.
Deserted by an owner or keeper; abandoned.
Run-down; dilapidated.
Neglectful of duty or obligation; remiss. See Synonyms at negligent.

n.
Abandoned property, especially a ship abandoned at sea.
A homeless or jobless person; a vagrant.
Law. Land left dry by a permanent recession of the water line.

yes. yes i do.

[Wraith]

--"The problem is how they do it. Not whether they do it or not, "

No, the root problem is that they do it. All you can do by changing the how is to ameliorate the problem a bit.

--"The competition prevents economies of scale."

In normal circumstances competition helps encourage companies to take advantage of that sort of thing. Health care is nowhere near normal circumanstaces, however. Too much competition is decidedly not the problem.

--"There's also massive overhead in the private insurance system. "

I would love to see where you get your figures on this one.

That said, it wouldn't suprise me too awful much. The problem is where that overhead is going. My doctor-before-last retired early because he got fed up with spending most of his time filling out government paperwork rather than seeing patients.

Wraith
"The government is good at one thing...it knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say 'see if it weren't for the government you wouldn't be able to walk.'"
-- Harry Browne

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by UberKruX


der·e·lict ( P ) Pronunciation Key (dr-lkt)
adj.
Deserted by an owner or keeper; abandoned.
Run-down; dilapidated.
Neglectful of duty or obligation; remiss. See Synonyms at negligent.

n.
Abandoned property, especially a ship abandoned at sea.
A homeless or jobless person; a vagrant.
Law. Land left dry by a permanent recession of the water line.

yes. yes i do.

Saying that a person is derelict is like saying that they are lazy by nature though. At least that's the way it's used in the US.