Krugman's latest column,
Here's why we're quicker:
On the other hand, it’s true that Americans get hip replacements faster than Canadians. But there’s a funny thing about that example, which is used constantly as an argument for the superiority of private health insurance over a government-run system: the large majority of hip replacements in the United States are paid for by, um, Medicare.
That’s right: the hip-replacement gap is actually a comparison of two government health insurance systems. American Medicare has shorter waits than Canadian Medicare (yes, that’s what they call their system) because it has more lavish funding — end of story. The alleged virtues of private insurance have nothing to do with it.
4 comments:
Krugman makes an excellent point. And one must also consider the ratio between medical service providers and patients in the U.S. and Canada.
there are plenty of places here in the US where there aren't enough doctors for the population, both rural and inner city areas.
i've forgotten where i've seen the number and i'm too lazy to go looking for them right now... we have a lot of specialists compared to other countries, but we're sorely lacking in general practitioners. a lot of us wouldn't need so much specialty care if we could just go to a regular ordinary everyday doctor when we first need one.
My uncle (a physician) once berated my mom (his sister) for using this argument. General-purpose doctors aren't, evidently, the minimally trained lot. Family practice actually requires extra training; it's a specialty of its own.
On the other hand, you'd think about any doctor should be trained for first aid, to recognize bacterial infection, etc.
K
zhshgjq: Z's hash thingamajig (horrible)
true. even general practitioner is a specialty, but they're not the high-priced amd narrow breed of specialist. they're extremely valuable, even if our spending habits suggest that we don't value them as much as we ought to.
lots and lots of good basic care from very smart and very practiced generalists would go a long way towards fixing what's wrong with us.
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