Quote:
Originally Posted by SluttyShemaleAnna
The US spends the most per-person on health care out of all major countires, (only the Marshall Islands beats it to the number 1 spot) with 15% of GDP spent on health care....
If Universal health care is so inefficient, and private health care so efficient, why is it that the WHO ranks the US so shit compared to it's spending, but countries with universal health care do far better than their amount of spending is?
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The problem with your argument is that you're basically breaking it down to a purely ECONOMIC argument -- essentially you're ranking GDP costs versus the amount of people covered. The problem with that argument is it TOTALLY leaves out the most important factor of all: QUALITY of care.
Frankly, organizations like WHO go purely for numbers. That's just a fact. As an organization and given its political and social beliefs -- and don't kid yourself, WHO certainly has some very strong political and social beliefs it then tries to act on -- WHO would rather see as many people as possible put under a health care umbrella because then they feel that a "greater good" is being served. In short, to them quantity DOES equality quality. I mean, the more the merrier, right?
The problem is that goes completely against AngryPostman's counter-argument that "universal health care for all is diluted health care for all." And he DOES have a point there that CANNOT be disputed.
Case in point: look at the UK system. Recently a decision was made that was picked up and covered over here in the States on the news. Long story short, the UK health care system had to make a choice to stabilize the financial health of the OVERALL system...in other words, to keep the system spread out and covering as many people as possible. As a result, it was decided that women with breast cancer would now have to be cut off from certain drugs and treatments that they needed. In short, the universal system couldn't bear the ever-growing costs, so the UK basically said "Okay, you women with breast cancer, you're on your own. If you've got the money, you can get your cancer drugs. Otherwise...well, too bad. We wish you luck. But hey! Look on the bright side! Now we can keep young kids on the universal plan and given them annual check-ups! So we're making a decision that the older must stay sick or possibly even die, so we can still afford to give younger people preventative treatments...which means that down the road we'll save some coin."
And let's face it -- THAT'S what freaks Americans out. We're used to our system and we DON'T want anyone...no organization like WHO or not even a President like Obama...telling us "Hey, sorry, you have to keep your cancer because we've decided it's better to give health care to all then to treat YOU." The problem with universal health care -- at least in terms of the European versions as viewed by the average American -- is that they are all summed up by the phrase: "Hey, too bad that you're sick and might die. But we need to cover everyone...it's for the greater good...so if you're really sick and might die, suck it up and take one for the team."
And if you want to debate this, no prob. I can pull statistics for this out of my ass all day long. Trust me, I've been down this road with family members, some of whom have passed on recently. As a result, this is a topic near and dear to me -- namely, the need for affordable health care while NOT seeing a massive decline in the QUALITY that is available to the average person.
And the bottom line fact is that the United States is STILL regarded as the NUMBER ONE place for QUALITY of care....as having the most ADVANCED treatments available...and for having the most TECHNICALLY PROFICIENT physicians in the world. And that's why Americans, at their core, get very, very, VERY squeamish and twitchy and nervous when people start talking about changing things on a truly massive scale. Sometimes the most basic things in life are true and those on the ultra-Left (like a Michael Moore) can point to countries like Cuba or Canada or the UK for having universal health care plans...that they cover so many people and that's a good thing...
...But the REAL truth is the people who live in those countries (or at least those with financial resources) do whatever the hell they can to come here -- to the United States -- for serious procedures because they know they will get BETTER treatment. The number of visiting foreign nationalists coming to the U.S. in order to seek treatment HERE rather than back home under their so-called universal plan has reached all-new record highs. And that's just a statistical fact.