Patrick O'Brian Discussion Forum

I don't see a solution, either.

Actually I see one "solution", but it's simply and factually Malthusian. Step 1: People get the notion that every possible health-care solution is a human right. Step 2: There is therefore no political willingness to argue the contrary; anyone saying "we'll just go broke and then be able to afford even less" is accused of caring insufficiently. We're there now. Step 3: We try to pay for everything, and break the bank. We're already entering that phase. Step 4: At some point on the way down economically, the impossibility that we tried to ignore becomes the actual inability to continue, and sanity returns, by force so to speak. At that point a lot more people die than would if we had faced facts earlier.

This isn't a threat; I think it's already inevitable. I argue against government healthcare not because I think there's any hope that we'll cut the cycle short, but only because ... well, because I have to, I guess; I don't know how to stop.

On Wed Nov 4, Chinquapin wrote
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>This link is to the sort of extraordinarily researched and written journalism that is on the way out. Simply put, no blogger will ever write something with this depth and balance:

>This really is a great article. In arguing these issues, I have sometimes said that we don't need universal health insurance coverage, we need NO health insurance. Without insurance, costs would drop and folks would make monthly payments directly to their doctors for services rendered (like my parents paid the doctor who delivered me $10 a month). Unfortunately, in reality, many people would just be refused treatment and die. But, the argument illustrates the biggest problem with our current system. If someone, public or private, is going to pay for everything that a professional can sort of justify doing, costs can't be contained. Name any other field in which a business can prescribe whatever services he says his customer needs and expect payment from a third party. My cable provider says I need a whole lot of services that I would accept, if Medicaid or Blue Cross were paying for them. The writer is clearly objective and well versed, and I was hoping for more concrete reform suggestions at the end. Having witnessed the overuse problems and listened to business consultants tell doctors how to be more profitable, I think the only cost-saving plan that can work on a national level has to include salaried doctors employed by the public. If they are second-rate, let patients or private insurers pay more to go to better ones. I don't think that's an offensive arrangement. There used to be many truly non-profit County hospitals that I think used salaried doctors. Now, there aren't many, so I'm can't say for sure how they operated.

Wed Nov 4

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