Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Cost of medical attention in America

A bit off the Iraq beat. I just watched a PBS News Hour report about the astounding increase of health-care costs in the US, which coincides with an overall decrease in the quality of the care in the US. Much hand-wringing, much puzzlement during the PBS report, especially over the question of why we in the US pay more for medical care than do other western countries, and get less. Much hand-wringing, but not a single observation that we might want to look at the difference between the systems.

Theirs: single-payer plans, funded by taxes. Ours: Private insurance coverage with gigantic profit-driven corporate bureaucracies between the doctor and the patient, and private, profit-driven companies making our drugs and running our hospitals? Has it ever occurred to anyone that capitalism, for all its good qualities in making cars and speedboats, ought to get the fuck out of health care?

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