The U.S. could slash health-care costs with two fundamental changes

Re:The U.S. could slash health-care costs with two fundament... by tsimionescu on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @05:43PM (#21519037)

Alternatively, you could have a system like a lot of the rest of the world, where medical care is simply provided as needed, hospitals are public entities, and health-care has no price (since there is no market), just a cost, that is payed for from taxes.

This way, all the money going into the system is actually spent on healthcare, instead of having profit extracted from it. You also get rid of the stress of money from the already bad situations of major disease, and the complex bureaucracy that insurance brings with it.

Edit: tone and some extra details.

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Re:The U.S. could slash health-care costs with two fundament... by rayiner on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @10:00PM (#21520830)

> Alternatively, you could have a system like a lot of the rest of the world, where medical care is simply provided as needed, hospitals are public entities, and health-care has no price (since there is no market), just a cost, that is payed for from taxes.

Almost no countries have such a model. The closest one is the UK. But the U.K. still rations care aggressively to control costs. (The government uses formulas to decide whether the benefit from a treatment is worth the cost.) In Germany, where the government subsidizes multi-payer insurance, more than 2/3 of hospitals are private. Even in Sweden, which had a system like you’re describing until 1995, more than a quarter of hospitals are private.

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Re:The U.S. could slash health-care costs with two fundament... by watertom on Tuesday November 12, 2019 @05:45PM (#21519060)

But then someone can't build a total useless and redundant service and get rich.

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