Re: ECON: Rebuke my TA! [Geoff Smith]

kristen brennan (kbrennan@teknowledge.com)
Mon, 27 Oct 1997 13:51:56 -0800


>In an e-mail conversation with my micro-economics teaching assistant, we

>got onto the subject of the inefficiencies of government as a monopolistic

>firm. I am in no way experienced enough to have a sufficiently informed

>debate on this topic-- could someone more learned please help me poke some

>holes in his argument(although some points of his are very convincing).

>Especially, how do I argue against his statement that public healthcare is

>40% cheaper than private!?!

>

>Note that Canada offers the same level of healthcare as

>the US but at about 40% lower costs.

Countries like Canada and Britain save so much money partially because

the cash cow of privatized health care in the US finances the lion's share of

development of new pharmaceuticals and techniques, which then benefit

public health care systems worldwide.

I read an article a year or three ago that asserted that wealthy Canadians

were happy to use public health care for MOST things, but that when they

needed a cutting-edge technique, or an especially skilled surgeon, they quite

commonly flew down to America and paid cash.

In general, health care you pay for is better than health care through the

state. Even the current near-equivilance of quality of care between countries

like Canada and the US is only possible because the R&D burden is unevenly

carried by the US. If all health care systems were public, the quality

of healthcare worldwide would decrease.

-k.

<bold>___________________________________________________________

</bold>Kristen Brennan

codewarrior princess

brennan@jitterbug.com

http://www.jitterbug.com/pages/brennan.html

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The child says, "Give me what I want because I desire it."

The teenager, "Because it is ethical." And the adult,

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