(March 21, 2022 at 4:25 pm)brewer Wrote:(March 21, 2022 at 11:24 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: ‘Free’ in this context can usually be taken to mean ‘no cost to the user at point-of-service’.
There’re plenty of things the US could do to lower the cost of healthcare to the point where where universal healthcare becomes practical and no (or only minor) tax increase would be needed.
I know this because literally every other developed country in the world has managed to do it.
Boru
How much R&D, testing, manufacturing (including infrastructure), man hours do other developed country in the world contribute to developing their health care they provide so inexpensively? It's quite a bit less, often next to none compared to the US. This is more complicated than most think.
Not saying that the US does not have flaws with the system but I think it's more complicated and complex than stating 'compare the end consumer prices of other countries'.
The only complex bit is that US healthcare is run as a for-profit enterprise. Actual numbers are hard to find, but I’m confident that the R&D/testing on insulin (for example) has been paid for many times over during the last century, yet the price of this vitally important medication in the US continues to be a scandal to the jaybirds.
As for infrastructure, how many new hospitals are built each year in the US? How many new drug manufacturing facilities? How many new research labs? Whatever the answers are (and they’re less than you think), compare those costs to how much profit is generated by all aspects of the healthcare industry.
Yes, it is indeed more complicated and complex than what end-users have to pay. It’s a mishmash of greed and stunningly incompetent mismanagement.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
