Could the United States afoord to NOT have medicare/medicaid?

[Tupac Shakur]

The argument you posted isn't a coherent sentence.

Jesus, don't be such an annoying dick.

The most convincing argument I've seen on the government side is that a free market in "healthcare" existed long before it actually did anything. The "I know what I want more than you know what I want" principle seems uniquely inapplicable.

Asymmetric information is obviously a major issue affecting the ability of individuals to make rational healthcare rationing decisions. I'm not sure the government would do any better, however. It's a complex issue.

[Lorizael]

No, but the enormous number of people without any form of health insurance might.

Many of those people are young, healthy individuals that don't want health insurance. That will also be solved by Obamacare, of course, as those individuals will be forced to purchase health insurance or face a penalty.

I haven't seen good numbers on how many without health insurance are that way by choice as opposed to necessity. Of course, those without healthcare drive up the cost of healthcare for everyone else (necessitating more rationing) when they require emergency care, but that's a mostly unrelated tangent. Anyway, there's a wikipedia article on this, so I can't possibly be wrong.

[Hauldren Collider]

Jesus, don't be such an annoying dick.

He might end up like Kuciwalker...

[Kuciwalker]

That's much better than ending up like you.

[Hauldren Collider]

Oh, how your words wound me...

[Kuciwalker]

Asymmetric information is obviously a major issue affecting the ability of individuals to make rational healthcare rationing decisions. I'm not sure the government would do any better, however. It's a complex issue.

My impression is that the British NHS actually does a reasonably good job at not paying for things that don't work.

[Hauldren Collider]

I'd still rather make the choice myself. The fact that not every government is utterly incompetent almost all of the time is not particularly reassuring.

[Tupac Shakur]

My impression is that the British NHS actually does a reasonably good job at not paying for things that don't work.

I honestly don't know enough about the NHS to argue for or against your impression.

[Tupac Shakur]

I haven't seen good numbers on how many without health insurance are that way by choice as opposed to necessity. Of course, those without healthcare drive up the cost of healthcare for everyone else (necessitating more rationing) when they require emergency care, but that's a mostly unrelated tangent. Anyway, there's a wikipedia article on this, so I can't possibly be wrong.

From Wikipedia:

David Leonhardt wrote in the New York Times in June 2009, that rationing presently an economic reality: "The choice isn’t between rationing and not rationing. It’s between rationing well and rationing badly. Given that the United States devotes far more of its economy to health care than other rich countries, and gets worse results by many measures, it’s hard to argue that we are now rationing very rationally."

More and better healthcare rationing in the United States, please.

[SlowwHand]

I know that Paul Ryan proposed a budget plan with significantchanges to the current medicare syste. However, if we could ignore the political realities that old people vote, and old people like medicare, what would happen to the United States if medicare ended tomorrow (the fourth of July)? How would the US change? What would happen to seniors? What kind of changes would it force on society? I'm curious to know what you think would happen.

Yes I made a typo in the post title.

Epic fail.

I suck at life.

If you're going to do away with something, you need to have a viable alternative. It's not a matter of like, it's a matter of necessity.

[Hauldren Collider]

From Wikipedia:





More and better healthcare rationing in the United States, please.

But not by the Obamacare board, please. If by rationing you mean rationing based on the fact that consumers are now directly exposed to the cost of their choices, yes, I'm all for it.

[giblets]

Jesus, don't be such an annoying dick.

I didn't understand the point he was making because of his typo.

[Kuciwalker]

I'd still rather make the choice myself. The fact that not every government is utterly incompetent almost all of the time is not particularly reassuring.

Your preference in this instance is pretty much irrelevant to the question at hand.

[giblets]

That's much better than ending up like you.

I agree.

[Tupac Shakur]

But not by the Obamacare board, please. If by rationing you mean rationing based on the fact that consumers are now directly exposed to the cost of their choices, yes, I'm all for it.

The problem with the Obamacare "death panels" is that they're weak and won't ration effectively, not that they exist. I frankly don't care much how rationing is accomplished, so long as it happens before healthcare costs become an unbearable burden on American society.