From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Jan 22 2002 - 11:09:38 MST
Anders writes:
> Which (in an attempt to make this thread extropianism relevant) brings up
> the interesting issue of what an extropian health care system would involve
> and how to bring it about.
>
> Clearly the current systems, both the heavily socialized ones in Sweden and
> Norway, and the far less socialized US system, are suboptimal in many ways
> both at providing desired care and in the forms of care we as transhumanists
> would like to have. It would useful to identify the basic assumptions (like
> only supplying 'health', not improvement, and that 'health' is the same for
> everybody) made that make them diverge from what we want, and the practical
> implementation issues that mess things up (ranging from public choice
> effects leading to bloated bureaucracies to organisational structures that
> promote an operational rather than humanistic view of patients).
It's important also to bear in mind Robin Hanson's criticisms of the
notion that "health care" actually improves health in any way. He pointed
to studies showing that providing unlimited health care benefits to
individuals actually did not improve objective measures of health other
than some minor things like getting their teeth fixed. They didn't live
longer, they didn't get sick any less, they didn't have better quality
of life. Robin also argued that the enhancements in health and longevity
over the past century do not correlate clearly with the advances in
medicine which are often credited with the improvements. Places with
the newest technology and rapid adoption of new health treatments do
not generally have healthier people than more backwards regions (this
is within the U.S. I think).
I really miss Robin's absence from the list. I know it is not polite
to say so, but I would gladly give up JR's 50 posts a week for one of
Robin's.
Hal
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