Taxes

MorkandMindy said:

The US healthcare system is the most complex single entity in the Milky Way galaxy. It cost 17.7 percent of GDP in 2017, a lot more than the military which it is fashionable to bash as expensive and inefficient.

It should cost about 10 percent of GDP, largely due to the amazing mass of contradictions it contains and the fractal nature of the way it is administrated.

Elizabeth Warren blew her chances of becoming President when she stated the way to fix it was to give it a lot more money.

The US healthcare system is overall a government run monopoly, obedient to the huge healthcare lobby.

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DaisyDay said:

No, it isn't, far from it. Apart from some aspects of Medicare and the healthcare provided to the military, US health care is a hodgepodge of private interests.

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It's both I think.

At the top level the government makes laws permitting only US certified doctors to write prescriptions which can be filled in this country. If you leave the country you are only allowed to bring in 2 months supply of medicines back, so it often isn't practicable to avoid paying the high fees for US certified doctors even though the standards are about the same in a lot of countries, and then there's high cost of US medicine.

Government enforced laws eliminate most forms of competition and then within the government enforced free-fire zone private clinics and what-not make a financial killing.

So both groups, the Right saying we need more competition and that will lower costs, and the Left saying government run medicine would save money, are both correct,

But I suspect quality control would be a lot easier in a centralized government-run medical system. Certainly I had better experiences in Britain than I've had on average over here.

And experiences others have related to me over here I recognized as total rip-offs done by doctors, but to be humane I have not told the sufferers as that would just make things a lot worse.

My guess is taking the Right wing route of increased competition would make a medical system to match our rip-off car service trade.

cow451 said:

Your questionnaire is Probably a fund-raising gimmick. Did they ask for a donation or membership? I get one of these about every month. First, the questions are meaningless because they just want your money. Second, returning the thing guarantees you’ll get more political mail.

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You hit the nail on the head! At the end it asked for money, as much as possible.

cow451 said:

The government doesn’t run it. It would be more accurate to say a cabal of companies does so.

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Maybe I should have said it is a government-enforced duopoly / oligopoly / cartel depending on exactly what level people are talking about, at the top level the government restricts competition to allow the cabals to run the clinic level and make big money due to lack of lower cost alternatives.

There are some ways around it such as going to Cuba for care, and here in New Mexico lots of people get dental work done in Mexico for a fraction of the cost.

I'm never certain of anything in the US medical morass, and there are so many levels to everything I'm always wrong about one level even if I get it right about another

(I'll try rewording post 43)