From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Tue Jul 17 2001 - 08:53:28 MDT
>From: Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au>
>My point above (even though it is really only a side issue to my
>main point) still stands. You are simply arguing that it is not as
>privatised as it could be. Undoubtedly that is true. What I said
>was that the US health market is probably the most privatised in
>the world. It is also the most expensive. To get a broken leg
>fixed in US is way more expensive than in Australia. (Forget drugs
>-- just basic health care: x-ray, cast, physiotherapy.) Australia
>has mostly had a publicly funded health system in the past. In
>recent years politicians who have been mesmerised by the economic
>rationalist religion have been dismantling that and the costs for
>health have been rising as a result. One of our states,
>Queensland, has always had the most public hospital system in
>Australia. Health care in that state is cheap and universal, and
>the same high quality elsewhere in Oz.
If I needed to have a broken leg fixed, it might cost me $150 if I
hadn't met my deductable that year, the same as it would cost if I
needed heart bypass surgery. Of course if I needed bypass surgery
I would be wheeled from the E.R. directly to surgery if needed, not
placed on a waiting list.
American hospitals are filled with patients from "universal" health
care countries.
>Health is just one of the things that I believe the capitalist
>system manages very badly. It is great for many other things, and
>in fact it is even good at certain aspects of medicine. But take
>balance and control out of the health system and it is like
>cutting the brake lines on a car: it may get you somewhere very
>fast but do you really want to be on board when it gets there?
I have rarely needed the american health care system, but it has
always been there and done an excellent job.
My only exposure to a "universal" health care system was as a
member of the military. An experience I wouldn't go through again
without a gun to my head.
Brian
Member:
Extropy Institute, www.extropy.org
National Rifle Association, www.nra.org, 1.800.672.3888
SBC/Ameritech Data Center Chicago, IL, Local 134 I.B.E.W
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