Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us

Re:Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us by halostatue on Thursday February 21, 2013 @10:52PM (#5262518)

To suggest that the 62M population of the UK is "small and homogenized" and needs no specialization…is the height of folly. The same can be said of Canada's 33M population. Both countries have world-leading treatment centres for a number of conditions (including some "edge cases").

Doctors here in Canada can still be sued for malpractice (and with few exceptions, doctors are NOT employees of the government; they are independent contractors), so that entire line of argument is bogus, like every single American argument I've ever heard against a true universal health-care system.

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Re:Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us by sageikosa on Friday February 22, 2013 @07:05AM (#5263836)

First, I never mentioned the UK.

Second, if I were, then small and homogenized could just as easily apply to a geographically concentrated population with the same macro drivers of external illness vectors (climate, weather and epidemiological proximity). Odds are that if the flu is going around the UK, the person coughing has the flu.

[EDIT] Third, I did say might and the short run...sometimes social engineering problems can take a while to diagnose, and can be difficult to treat.[/EDIT]

And just like anywhere that regulations spring up (Canada or not), regulatory compliance becomes a de facto legal defense against malfeasance.

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