I'm grateful I don't live in a country with socialized medicine. I have access to the best healthcare in the world by paying cash for it.
If only there were a way to measure whether the US has the best healthcare in the world. One would certainly expect it to, given that we pay more per capita (by far) than any other westernized country.
If only there were a way to see how we compare with things like maternal mortality, medical errors, stroke survival post hospitalization, overall mortality rate, cancer survival after 5 years, etc. If only...
Incidentally, guess where the US ranks in life expectancy (a good measure of healthcare quality, and health education)? I'll give you a hint, it's not even in the top 50.
Well the US may not be the best but it could be worse one might imagine. I think it could find its way to worse following AJax imaginations. I doubt he is thinking about how hospitals are legally required to treat people who cannot pay and spread the loss cost to others, a sort of socialist system. I suspect he did not mention insurance which of course is the main component in how our system works because insurance follows the pattern of socialism, all the healthy people pay for the sick ones.
So to significant degrees the US system has socialist qualities and really would not function without them. The question is what are the best ways to run and organize it.
... how hospitals are legally required to treat people who cannot pay and spread the loss cost to others, a sort of socialist system.
Not in Utah. Now that the Soylent Green factory is in full operation in Lindon Utah, hospitals have a fully conservative option in offloading non-paying patients.
A Tories coalition could easily build one in Leeds.
I don't think it matters that much. Your conservative and liberal parties aren't much different.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
Ajax is an optometrist, one of the most regulated and protected industries in the US. Every step of his education, licensure, and professional life has had the protection and sanction of state, local, and federal governments. He wouldn't have it any other way. His lucrative job wouldn't exist without them. To read an American optometrist glorifying what he says is the "free market' is absolutely hilarious.
You know that's a fabulous point, Morley. Better than you even know. I recall articles from the Von Mises institute back in the day criticizing the healthcare industry for this very reason. Not every skinned knee requires twelve years of school to dress, etc.
The American healthcare system is indeed a very long way from a free market. in my opinion, if you want to have your lasik surgery done by an illegal immigrant out of the back of a van in south Florida because it's cheaper than going to someone who had to pay their dues to the AMA, you should have the right to do so. The part I disagree with is when you contend that I'm on the hook to provide your disability check for the next forty years while you smoke pot all day.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
Good enough for you, Ajax? Or do you think the Conservatives would be better?
Thanks. That's good enough for me. I suppose for me as an American taxpayer it's rather refreshing to see a leftwing European party that at the very least pays lip service to pulling its weight in NATO. Tory control in England certainly isn't better for me. But is it good for you? Wouldn't you rather argue that it's the American taxpayers’ sole responsibility to fund NATO and protect free commerce around the globe since they're the only remaining military superpower? It seems to have freed up a lot of your UK tax revenue to fund a more robust welfare dole in the past three decades. More than a few European leftists have bragged about this grift in the past.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
Good enough for you, Ajax? Or do you think the Conservatives would be better?
Thanks. That's good enough for me. I suppose for me as an American taxpayer it's rather refreshing to see a leftwing European party that at the very least pays lip service to pulling its weight in NATO. Tory control in England certainly isn't better for me. But is it good for you? Wouldn't you rather argue that it's the American taxpayers’ sole responsibility to fund NATO and protect free commerce around the globe since they're the only remaining military superpower? It seems to have freed up a lot of your UK tax revenue to fund a more robust welfare dole in the past three decades. More than a few European leftists have bragged about this grift in the past.
Good enough for you, Ajax? Or do you think the Conservatives would be better?
Thanks. That's good enough for me. [...] Wouldn't you rather argue that it's the American taxpayers’ sole responsibility to fund NATO and protect free commerce around the globe since they're the only remaining military superpower? [...]
No. Why on earth would I think such a stupid thing?
You really don't know a lot about people in other countries, I suspect. You sound almost disappointed when we fail to match the stereotype that you have been given by - who? Fox News? Breitbart?
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
Mayan Elephant:
Not only have I denounced the Big Lie, I have denounced the Big lie big lie.
The American healthcare system is indeed a very long way from a free market. in my opinion, if you want to have your lasik surgery done by an illegal immigrant out of the back of a van in south Florida because it's cheaper than going to someone who had to pay their dues to the AMA, you should have the right to do so.
No, you don't. You want immigrants rounded up and deported. You want the protection of law and licensure for your profession to quell competition. My own lasik surgery was done by a physician under the Canadian Health Care system. You certainly don't want that kind of thing happening here.
The part I disagree with is when you contend that I'm on the hook to provide your disability check for the next forty years while you smoke pot all day.
Of course you're on the hook for that. You're on the hook the same way I'm on the hook to help provide schooling for your gaggle of kids; the same way I help pay for your religious practices by subsidizing them through tax breaks; the same way that I pay the state as it says that you're one of the few who can give an eye test and write a prescription for eyeglasses.
Have you spent five minutes thinking any of this through, or are you being knowingly disingenuous?
No, you don't. You want immigrants rounded up and deported. You want the protection of law and licensure for your profession to quell competition. My own lasik surgery was done by a physician under the Canadian Health Care system. You certainly don't want that kind of thing happening here.
What are you talking about? LASIK isn't covered by socialized medicine in Canada. It's cash pay. It's an excellent business to be in.
The part I disagree with is when you contend that I'm on the hook to provide your disability check for the next forty years while you smoke pot all day.
Of course you're on the hook for that. You're on the hook the same way I'm on the hook to help provide schooling for your gaggle of kids; the same way I help pay for your religious practices by subsidizing them through tax breaks; the same way that I support the state as it says that you're one of the few who can give an eye test and write a prescription for eyeglasses.
Again what are you talking about? You don't pay for my gaggle of kids. I don't consider two a gaggle. My kids have never been on medicaid. And I'm having them pulled out of public school to avoid leftist indoctrination. Even if they were in public school, you don't pay as much in taxes as I do. You likely never have. And how is paying for kids to become productive workers equivalent to paying for a welfare nonworker to roll blunts on his roof all day? Even if public education is as impractical as I would argue it is, that's still a stretch to say it's that bad.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
No, you don't. You want immigrants rounded up and deported.
There's another lie you keep repeating. I want illegal immigrants rounded up and deported and then sent back at the border immediately when they attempt to reenter the country illegally.
The more subtle lie is the idea that you give a rip about 3rd world migrants. You want to get them into the country and voting as quickly as possible so that you can destroy the rest of the country the way you've destroyed California with their Democrat super majority. Once we've made the country California, then where will people flee for economic opportunity and the right to keep their wages?
Last edited by ajax18 on Thu Jun 20, 2024 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
