On Sat, 19 Nov 2005 15:59:42 GMT, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

wrote:
"Wayne Harrison" wrote:
"rw" wrote:
The cost of one day of the war in Iraq could pay for one year of health
insurance for 400,000 uninsured children.

it's a disgrace, and a nightmare.


Now think about that statement a second. It isn't, "the cost could pay
to provide necessary, even life-saving treatment to a lot more than
400,000 children," it's framed in terms of paying for _insurance_ for
400,000 children. Sick or injured children who have no insurance
coverage don't need insurance, they need medical care, and healthy
children obviously don't need care - if you insure 400,000, some will go
without, but if treat those who actually need, more could be
accomplished.

I'm surprised to hear you coming out in favor of socialized
medicine. I think it's a ****ing disgrace that we don't have
it in this country already.

And you've not heard me come out in favor of socialized medicine. It's
just a ****ed-up quasi insurance company run by bureaucrats,and as such,
it doesn't work, either. First and foremost, the _health care_ system
in this country is pretty good, with relatively few going without. In
fact, I'd guess (but don't know absolutely) that overall care would
probably decrease with socialized medicine.

OTOH, the payment scheme is screwed up beyond belief and that idea that
people need insurance rather than the underlying treatment that
insurance _might_ be called upon to provide is part of why it is so
screwed up. Figure in overall malpractice costs (or really, costs
resulting from the ridiculous awards - you want to punish a truly
negligent doctor? Yank his license and toss his ass in jail, but don't
give some individual 100 million USD...minus 40% and costs...), product
and premise liability costs, bureaucratic costs, advertising costs,
across-the-board profit, etc., and at the end of the day, there's going
to be a bill for all that extra slop in the trough.

TC,
R