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Re:The death dilemma: Are hospitals overtreating patients ne... by photochemsyn on Saturday October 08, 2022 @10:28AM (#33132547)
I think it's a bit more complicated than that, because in most socialized medicine systems, the suppliers are not owned by the government, so there's a lot of private industry billing (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and implants. etc.)

It's comparable to the USA's freeway system - yes the roads are publicly owned, but road repairs and material procurement are contracted out to private industry, and there's always the possibility of things like a government employee getting a kickback from a construction company for signing off on unnecessary work requests, etc.

Re:The death dilemma: Are hospitals overtreating patients ne... by kennend3 on Saturday October 08, 2022 @10:33AM (#33132597)
> the suppliers are not owned by the government

Correct..but pretty much any "medical supplier" requires a doctors note to provide services.

"blood testing labs" for example might want to blood test everyone in the country for everything imaginable..Without a doctors note they are prohibited from taking blood.

Doctors (effectively government employees) do control the gates.

Kickback schemes are possible (and have been uncovered), but this is a pretty big tangent to "over-treating those near death" isnt it?

Most "medial fraud" in canada tends to focus on "services charged but not rendered".