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Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by nradov on Wednesday October 16, 2024 @05:41PM (#41864118)
I think you're a little confused about causality. All healthcare systems, including fully socialized ones, perform similar types of case review to ration care and hold down costs. US healthcare costs might be high now but would be even higher if the payers (including the Medicare / Medicaid government payers) paid every claim that came in without denying those that fail to mean plan coverage rules.

If we want to hold down costs then we'll have to put a greater focus on preventative care, stop expensive treatments for terminal patients, impose price controls on providers, and stop subsidizing drug development for the rest of the world. None of those measures are politically popular.

Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by WalterBright on Thursday October 17, 2024 @12:43AM (#41866475)
Price controls always result in shortages.
Re:Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 3... by nradov on Thursday October 17, 2024 @09:56AM (#41869720)
Yes, exactly. Since demand for healthcare services is essentially unlimited, creating artificial shortages is one way to ration care and hold down public spending. The US government already creates healthcare shortages in other ways, such as constraining the number of residency slots to limit Medicare spending. (I don't support this, but it is somewhat effective from a fiscal policy perspective.)