(February 12, 2014 at 2:13 pm)EvolutionKills Wrote:(February 12, 2014 at 10:57 am)là bạn điên Wrote: I keep repeating this every month or so.
The US Government pays MORE per head than the governments of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan or South Korea and yet all those countries have fully comprehensive socialized medicine including dental and prescription medicines this is quite separate to the amount of money people pay for private healthcare.
The US government has the money already for a fully comprehensive health care system.
No shit, because of things like the Senate signing laws that prevent the Government from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for the drugs they purchase through Medicare and Medicaid. If the government was allowed to negotiate, being one of the largest (if not the largest) purchaser from these companies, they would have a lot of clout and could get much lower prices. Instead the Senate passes laws that forces the government to pay the company's asking price, regardless of however ridiculous that price may be. But even that being said, do you know what the overhead is on Medicare and Medicaid? 3%. The ACA guarantees at least a 15% for the for-profit insurance companies, and that's bullshit; health insurance (like education and emergency services) shouldn't be for-profit. It's just one of the reasons why America pays more than any other First World country and has the least amount to show for it.
I agree with you for the main. In the UK the NHS gets such great bulk order discounts that individual suppliers don't make a profit on sales (but its worth it to them because they cover costs and can then produce the other drugs they sell at lower cost.
However I see nothing wrong with the private sector contacting for certain contracts if they are better. For instance in the UK to get Spectacles on the NHS you could wait 3 months and have no choice then they introduce a voucher system and all the main high street stores had a range that could be bought at the voucher value.
Some may call them junk, I call them treasures.