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Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by Frondo on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @03:22PM (#16980313)
I've never seen a plausible explanation of why a health care system would work for 60 million (UK) but not for 300 million (US).

Bodies are mostly the same, they break down in mostly the same ways. There isn't a lot of mystery in providing care, either. Nor a lot of mystery in how you'd fund it.

We just aren't doing any of that, cause our politicians are bought so very, very cheaply, and enough people are enriching themselves in small ways through small grifts that changing the system would impact a lot of people who are just well-off enough to be listened to.

Re:Both in rich and poor countries, universal health care br... by 18pfsmt on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @04:09PM (#16980730)
>I've never seen a plausible explanation of why a health care system would work for 60 million (UK) but not for 300 million

Scaling advanced systems to large numbers of users is very difficult and is the reason Facebook is worth ~1/2 Trillion dollars.

"James Madison argued, especially in The Federalist No. 10, that what distinguished a direct democracy from a republic was that the former became weaker as it got larger and suffered more violently from the effects of faction, whereas a republic could get stronger as it got larger and combats faction by its very structure."

<our politicians are bought so very, very cheaply, and enough people are enriching themselves

If this were true, we should arbitrage this value-mismatch and create a market for buyers and sellers of this powerful, political influence. "cheaply"? As the saying goes, "Extraordinary claims, require extraordinary evidence."

It is possible that the lawmakers share the same views as the for-profit/non-profit corporate execs, just like I agree with Green Peace(i.e. lobbyists) that we should end the practice of whaling significantly. The sovereign nation of Japan disagrees.