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My grandma was just telling me about a Fox News story about folks from Georgia traveling all the way down to Mexico for dental & health care on account of how they just cannot afford it right here.
That, right there, is the story of my childhood. We always made a trip to Tijuana for dentistry, where we could pay cash, because we couldn't afford it here, in the States. The prime culprit, I suspect, is the insurance industry. Whenever you have that extra administrative layer, a third party payer, you always get increased costs. The real joke of it is that some people seem to think that the solution is government-run healthcare. Yeah, so you have a problem caused by big insurance companies, and you think you can solve it by consolidating them into one colossal insurance company (the government)? That's exactly the wrong answer. Mexico is not a cheaper solution because of socialism. They don't even have socialism.
In the long run they aren't sustainable though. Medical costs worldwide are going up, and populations are aging, thus driving up costs of Geriatric medicine further. The natural population increase that would have shouldered this increase historically has plateaued or become negative, so the productivity of the young is not as able to subsidise the old. This is why many such countries are looking toward Euthanasia, I'd bet, at least part of the reason many are pushing for it.That's untrue propaganda. Lots of countries manage to provide affordable or free healthcare to their citizens and retain extremely competitive economies as a result.
In the long run they aren't sustainable though. Medical costs worldwide are going up, and populations are aging, thus driving up costs of Geriatric medicine further. The natural population increase that would have shouldered this increase historically has plateaued or become negative, so the productivity of the young is not as able to subsidise the old. This is why many such countries are looking toward Euthanasia, I'd bet, at least part of the reason many are pushing for it.
Look, non-socialised medicine is also not affordable. Not to be a doom prophet, but no current medical system on earth is sustainable in the long run - either through increased costs, aging populations, lack of competitiveness, or failing or decreased antibiotic or drug development. Medically, everything looks bleak and looking for a workable model elsewhere is merely looking for another way to stack the deckchairs while the Titanic sinks.
Really? Did they do a nice job at least in Tijuana? Did you / do you live near the border?
I'm wondering what Cruz's plan to fix the US healthcare system is.
I think to look at the comparison is to examine Socialized medicine in the US to Non-Socialized medicine. The VA is an example of Socialized medicine in the US and it compares pretty equally to Non-VA hospitals. The death rate is slightly lower in VA hospitals but not enough to tout it as being better. Some will point to the horror stories made public in a few VA hospitals but not mention the horror stories in Non-VA hospitals.
Finland is interesting because that's what the left in America envisions when they say "socialism".Please Enjoy These Finnish People Politely Going After Nikki Haley for Saying They Hate Having Good Healthcare
Here in the U.S., we mostly all just pray that we don't get too sick, even if we have (mostly inadequate) health insurance that often costs us more than a mortgage payment each month.
A lot.I wonder what the same treatment would have cost me in the USA?
I agree in principle. In practice though, it's kind of impossible to offer socialized medicine while maintaining the open border policies which the Democrats favor. Welcoming in utter outsiders who haven't paid into the system and are infected with who knows what will break the system, eventually. There are other complications to that as well though.I'm somewhat cynical when I hear some Americans almost throw up when they hear the word "socialism" as though it's all bad. We're supposed to be a community and help each other, and that is what socialised medicine does, provided it is efficient and waste is minimalised.
To be fair, our "socialized" system isn't really comparable to yours.There's a list here of countries with "universal healthcare" and guess what? The USA is included!
List of countries with universal healthcare - Wikipedia
If we had absolutely controlled borders, I would actually support socialized medicine. My opposition to it comes primarily from not wanting a broken system because it's offered to the entire world but funded only by taxpayers.
If there's a loaded gun on the other side of the violation, methinks the overstayers will straighten up very quickly.We could put up all the walls in the world and we are not going to have absolutely controlled borders. Absolutely controlled borders is a pipe dream. Most illegals are flying in legally anyway and then just overstaying past their visas, so controlling a border isn't going do much of anything.
If there's a loaded gun on the other side of the violation, methinks the overstayers will straighten up very quickly.
Where there's a will there's a way, right?