Reply to post: Let me explain the why the US healthcare system is this way

Healthcare: Look anywhere you like for answers, just not the US

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Let me explain the why the US healthcare system is this way

Since Tim and many of you non-US people seem to think it is astonishing that we've arrived at a system that falls short in so many ways.

Politicians aren't stupid, they know it could be fixed and cost less, but they know where their bread is buttered. Where do you think that massive 18% of GDP goes? What happens to the US economy if we were able to rip it out and replace it with Singapore's system that requires only 1/4 as much GDP? Millions would lose their jobs, pensions and retirement accounts would be devastated, the economy would be thrown into a massive recession! OK, maybe not, since it would undoubtedly take many years to make the transition so the pain would be spread out over a long enough time the economy could probably absorb it, but it would still be a massive economic dislocation to the millions and millions of people who are involved in some way in that 18% of GDP.

As well, I don't think we could really get down to 4.5% like Singapore, because while the US does waste a lot of money, much of the world's basic research into new drugs and new medical procedures takes place here. Well, the ones that will end up expensive so there's a good return on all the money that is spent bringing them to market. Singapore doesn't have to bear that cost, but if the US wasn't doing it because we got down to 4.5% like they did, some of the new drugs and surgical advances originating in the US would not be available for anyone.

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