What is the current Republican position on this?

Did you really just say that?
Johnny presents a scenario that looks like him being on his own death watch. That doesn't look to good, from here.

Cancer, and what looks like no way to fight it.

Note The Sad Smilie that accompanies the lyrics from a song.
 
Changes what things?

It's certainly a significant expense. In Massachusetts alone, with just 2.2% of the US population, the cost of defensive medicine is $1.4 billion per year. Extrapolated nationwide and you're adding ~$60 billion to the nation's health care tab.

I actually wouldn't extrapolate from Massachusetts. We're the number one state for health care in the country and have the most high ranked hospitals (except possibly for California. Cali is huge and I don't know much about their health care, so they could have more than us). You can't swing a dead cat in Boston without hitting a major hospital. People come from all over the country and the world to be treated in Boston. Boston also is on the cutting edge of medical advances and innovation, thanks to our top ranked research hospitals. There are a lot of treatments, procedures, etc, which are available in Boston first before anywhere else in the country, so if you want that treatment, you have to come here. Medicine and medical research is one of our biggest industries.

I can pretty much guarantee you Mississippi, Alabama, and all the other "fly over states" etc don't have anywhere near the amount of health care providers we have here. And that people aren't traveling from all over the world to be treated in Alabama (with the exception of people seeking to enroll in a clinical trial only available at a hospital/research center there).

We also have the single most generous Medicaid program in the country, and we're the only state that has compulsory health insurance coverage (or else you pay a tax penalty). Also, health insurance benefits are very competitve amongst employers here in Mass, so people who work here tend to get on average better coverage than people out of state.

So in general our residents receive more medical care because they are more likely to be insured, and insured well.

Lastly, while of course there are hospitals in other New England states, no state in New England aside from Mass has the kind of advanced/specialty hospitals that we have in Boston, so it is extremely common for other New England residents to come to Boston for treatment for major medical issues. This is why all New England Medicaid programs extend their coverage to Boston providers, even though many other areas of the country have Medicaid programs that are limited to their own states. But Maine, Connecticut, etc all have Medicaid programs where they know that for major conditions, a patient will often have to go to Boston to get treated.

If defensive medicine in Mass is "only" $1.4 B, that makes me think (though I wouldn't say this with certainty) that the cost of defensive medicine in the U.S. is actually much smaller than I would have thought when compared to the total cost of health care.
 
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Any response at all to my points?
I decided to take a break from the argument, to cool off.
Or at least, do you have any evidence to back up any of the claims you have made on this thread?
"Evidence" means "from (what is) seen". I'm not a physician and I have not been a patient of a physician or surgeon in twenty years, as I already wrote. Because of this discussion, and on the recommendation of Thomas Sowell, I decided to order The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care by Sally C. Pipes. Sowell:...
Fortunately, Sally Pipes is one of the few who has explored the reality of government-controlled medical treatment in Canada and other countries. Among the things she discovered is that new life-saving medications that go immediately into the market in the United States take a much longer time to become available to Canadian patients -- if they ever get approved by the bureaucrats.

No doubt that lowers the cost of medications -- if you count costs solely in money terms, rather than in terms of how many people literally pay with their lives when the bureaucrats are reluctant to buy new pharmaceutical drugs.

Cancer survival rates are higher in the United States than in Europe. A recent report by the Fraser Institute in Vancouver estimates that annually tens of thousands of Canadians seek medical treatment outside of Canada, even though treatment is free inside Canada and they have to pay themselves for treatment elsewhere.

Other studies show that waiting times for surgery are months longer in Canada, Britain and Australia -- all countries with government-controlled medical care -- than in the United States.
I will make one more contribution to this thread and then pause to read Pipes and some other unrelated stuff.
Or at least, do you have any evidence to back up any of the claims you have made on this thread?
"Evidence" is raw data. Statistics matter. So also do more abstract considerations, which I have argued and "Cat" and "Dechasor" have not addressed. Everybody dies. Unless we die by accident, we will become ill. For most of us, at some point, somebody or some body will assess whether an additional __X__days of life are worth an additional __$Y__ dollars and conclude: No. This is most obvious at the extreme ends of the usual lifespan (post-conception to age 6 months or so, age 85+) but it can occur at any time when doctors assess a severely damaged human and share information with the people who will pay for care. Whether __X__ additional days of life justify the expenditure of $Y dollars depends on the value of that life to the people who make the decision. That will depend, in part, on the level of function. Where does any advocate for tax-subsidized care disagree, so far?

I have a serious question - if you were willing to take the time and look into your claims, and did realize, as has been poitned out to you, that everything you have said here has been a lie (I'm not saying you're lying, I'm saying Democratic politicians and their shills lie to people like you), does that change your opinion at all? Also, does it bother you even a little bit that all the Democratic points you've been told are flat out lies?

Ring any bells,
 
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My last contribution, I hope, until I read Pipes.


...Expense at the extremes of health care doesn't really justify not giving everyone adequate health care, which is exceedingly affordable....
...Define "adequate". We all, ultimately, receive "inadequate" health care...
...Oh, right, because you are lucky and haven't had any health problems, everyone can do without. I suppose you ignore the fact that a good bit of that is pure luck?
Non-responsive.
...Please define "adequate".
If you are going to repeat a question I missed, at least have the courtesy to quote or mention what it was in regards to.
(Malcolm): "Please define "adequate"."
...Expense at the extremes of health care doesn't really justify not giving everyone adequate health care, which is exceedingly affordable....
(Drachasor): "Expense at the extremes of health care doesn't really justify not giving everyone adequate health care, which is exceedingly affordable. In fact, even the vast, vast majority of the more extreme cases aren't all that expensive for society to cover."
...(crickets)...
I read the link to the Kaiser study of costs. I accept that other countries pay less, per capita or as a percent of GDP than the US. I don't accept that other systems are more efficient, in terms of dollars per added year of life.
 
Johnny presents a scenario that looks like him being on his own death watch. That doesn't look to good, from here.

Cancer, and what looks like no way to fight it.

Note The Sad Smilie that accompanies the lyrics from a song.

I got it. This sucks. If I ever won the lottery I'd be poor again in a year because I'd have to help people.
 
"Evidence" is raw data. Statistics matter. So also do more abstract considerations, which I have argued and "Cat" and "Dechasor" have not addressed. Everybody dies. Unless we die by accident, we will become ill. For most of us, at some point, somebody or some body will assess whether an additional __X__days of life are worth an additional __$Y__ dollars and conclude: No. This is most obvious at the extreme ends of the usual lifespan (post-conception to age 6 months or so, age 85+) but it can occur at any time when doctors assess a severely damaged human and share information with the people who will pay for care. Whether __X__ additional days of life justify the expenditure of $Y dollars depends on the value of that life to the people who make the decision. That will depend, in part, on the level of function. Where does any advocate for tax-subsidized care disagree, so far?


I'm not quite sure what you mean by this. I already did agree with you that people often are put in a position of trying to decide if "Y" treatment is worth "X" days of life when it comes to people who are paying out of pocket. Is your position that the government is less likely to agree to "Y" treatment than a private insurance company is? Because I already addressed this, and as it is now, private insurance companies deny medically necessary procedures allt he time.

However, if you're aiming at another point I'm not grasping, please let me know and I will address it.


I have a serious question - if you were willing to take the time and look into your claims, and did realize, as has been poitned out to you, that everything you have said here has been a lie (I'm not saying you're lying, I'm saying Democratic politicians and their shills lie to people like you), does that change your opinion at all? Also, does it bother you even a little bit that all the Democratic points you've been told are flat out lies?

That's not the way it works. You can't just say, "well you said everything I said is wrong, so I'm going to say everything YOU say is false too!"

I have, in detail, explained exactly which claims you have made and why they are false.


If you think anything I have said has been false, please point them out to me and I will address them in turn.

Also, I am not a Democrat and my arguments are not from Democratic talking points, unlike your arguments, which come exclusively from right wing talking points. Please point out to me what faulty Democratic talking points I have relied upon, rather than presenting my first hand knowledge of the inaccuracies of your arguments.

I feel our politicians on both sides of the isle are pretty ignorant of what exactly goes into healthcare. For instance, leftist politicians and pundits tend to advocate nonsense such as anti vaccine propaganda, or endorsement of alternative medicine, homeopathy, etc. Due to that fact, I really don't have much respect for the political left's position on healthcare.

My opinions on health care do not come from politicians, because I have not offered you opinions. I have offered you factual data that I am aware of due to working in the healthcare industry.

Oh, and I have no idea who Sally Pipes is, but if you are telling me that you will base your entire opinion of how health care works based off of one singular book, I'd say that's really poor researching.

Update: I just looked up Sally Pipes. She is a right wing political advocate who has no medical credentials and no experience working in the healthcare industry.

That's the difference between me and you. You get your opinions from politicians and pundits with a political agenda.

I get my facts from a healthcare system whose agenda is providing the best healthcare.

I told you before that every major medical association in America, along with most major hospitals, advocates for universal healthcare.

Can you explain to me why you think a woman with no experience in healthcare and no medical qualifications, with an admitted political agenda which is the basis of her book, is a valid source of data on the healthcare industry, versus every major medical associations and most major hospitals in the United States?

Right now, it appears to me you actually aren't trying to research anything, but rather are trying to look for validation of your political views. Can you comment on that?

Right away she looks very untrustworthy because she clearly cherry picks data. For instance, she points out (correctly) that cancer survival rates are lower in Canada. However, the flip side of that is there are plenty of diseases in America in which the opposite is true. For example, Canada has a higher survival rate for cardiovascular disease as well as general non communicable disease. They also have a lower infant mortality rate.

It also is worth noting that cancer is increasingly common the older you get, and cancer treatment can be very hard on a person. Especially in old age, successful cancer treatment can still leave you with a very poor quality of life due to side effects from treatment or surgery. One of the common complaints we get, particularly from the elderly, is that their cancer treatment makes them feel much more sick than their actual cancer. I wonder if more people in Canada opt not to have cancer treatment in old age, because they do not feel a little longer lifespan would be worthwhile in terms of the side effects of treatment. I'm really not sure when it comes to Canada, but it's something to consider.

Also, from what I have read on Sally Pipes, she seems to use Canada as the comparison for universal healthcare, rather than factoring in other nations which also have universal healthcare but have better ranked healthcare systems then Canada. This makes me think she falsely attributes any problems with Canada's system to universal healthcare as a whole, even if other nations with universal healthcare do not have the same problems as Canada.
 
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I read the link to the Kaiser study of costs. I accept that other countries pay less, per capita or as a percent of GDP than the US. I don't accept that other systems are more efficient, in terms of dollars per added year of life.

Adequate Health Care: Medicare-like* coverage for all or coverage equivalent to what other First World countries provide. If you want you could rule out procedure that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars (these are extremely rare though, so it isn't a big deal).

I'll provide you with a link later today showing that other countries have similar efficacy of treatment compared to the U.S. Once I've shown both similar treatment effectiveness and cheaper prices, will you accept they are more efficient?

Beyond that, there's the fact other first world countries have longer expected lifespans than the U.S. Does that happen to be sufficient?

*Fixed so that it can negotiate prescription drug prices and the like, of course.
 
:(
I won't forget to put roses on your grave.

Johnny, do you live in New England by any chance? If so I could advise you of hospitals with charitable programs in the area. If not, I would advise calling the American Cancer Society and asking them about charitable programs in your area or for your specific diagnosis.

Okay, I'm realizing now that my terribly clumsy hypothetical was taken at face value. I do not have cancer. I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.

My intent was to challenge this statement:
Bulletin: All Americans already do have access to health care -- whether you have any insurance or money at all. And even illegal Aliens have access to health care. And if destitute, completely free! Is this a great country or what?

Which, of course, Robert hasn't bothered to defend or detail.



I'm thinking you were probably providing that link to be helpful rather than substantiation for a claim. However, I was actually looking for specifics that would validate Robert's statements.

A cursory search on that website revealed these eligibility standards for free cancer treatment (pertaining specifically to breast and cervical cancer):
  • For federally funded assistance: California residency, countable income under or at 200% Federal Poverty Level, female, U.S. Citizen or legal permanent resident, under age 65, no other creditable health insurance coverage, valid diagnosis and in need of treatment as verified by either a State funded Breast Cancer Early Detection Program (BCEDP), a federally funded Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) or Family PACT
  • For State funded assistance: California residency, countable income under or at 200% Federal Poverty Level, male regardless of age or female age 65 and older, unsatisfactory immigration status, other health coverage with annual deductibles and/or co-pays in excess of $750, valid diagnosis and in need of treatment as verified by either a State funded Breast Cancer Early Detection Program (BCEDP), a federally funded Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program (BCCCP) or Family PACT.


So basically you have to be poor to qualify.

But the problem is not everyone unable to afford necessary medical treatment is poor.
 
Okay, I'm realizing now that my terribly clumsy hypothetical was taken at face value. I do not have cancer. I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.

No harm no foul Johnny. Expressing tone/sarcasm/hypothetics/intentional hyberbole can be difficult on the net in that they are often taken at face value!

I have found myself in the same position before as well. :)
 
...other first world countries have longer expected lifespans than the U.S. Does that happen to be sufficient?
No. In hindsight, lifespans in Hiroshima dropped steeply on 1945-08-06, and it was not because the health care system got worse, relative to previous days or to Kyoto or Yokohama. Lifestyle choices, mostly, and the quality of care make the difference in aggregate longevity between US and, say, Belgium.
 
What lifestyle choice can I make to not get testicular cancer?
 
First of all, why would subsized people be more likely to overconsume? Let's say I have a private insurance, and I have a five hundred dollar (or maybe less, maybe it's only $100) out of pocket maximum on physician visits. After I reach this amount, I will not have to pay anything out of pocket to see my physician. So essentially, all my MD visits would now be free after I've met my cap. Why would I be less likely than someone with Medicare - who still has a 20% co insurance on all their doctor visits - or someone with Medicaid who has say a $30 co pay - no matter how much they spend (as there is no out of pocket maximum with Medicare and many Medicaid programs), when my doctor visits with my non subsidized health insurance are completely free?

Also, it's not like hospitals are going to give you unnecessary chemotherapy or surgeries (unless the health care provider themselves is fraudulent). The only thing people can really overconsume is routine office visits and some diagnostic testing. At the end of the day, that's a pretty unsubstantial amount of money. Most money in health care is spent when people are catastrophically ill. Preventative medicine is really comparatively cheap. It's end of life/chronic care that really adds up and makes up the bulk of health care costs. If anything, the person who overconsumes simple office visits is more likely to have an actual health care problem caught early. The earlier something is caught, the more likely the problem can be treated more quickly, and more cheaply. So someone who goes to the doctor more than they need to may end up saving the system a lot of money in the long run.

malcolm, what is your response to this?

Right away she looks very untrustworthy because she clearly cherry picks data. For instance, she points out (correctly) that cancer survival rates are lower in Canada. However, the flip side of that is there are plenty of diseases in America in which the opposite is true. For example, Canada has a higher survival rate for cardiovascular disease as well as general non communicable disease. They also have a lower infant mortality rate.

or this?

Update: I just looked up Sally Pipes. She is a right wing political advocate who has no medical credentials and no experience working in the healthcare industry.

That's the difference between me and you. You get your opinions from politicians and pundits with a political agenda.

I get my facts from a healthcare system whose agenda is providing the best healthcare.

I told you before that every major medical association in America, along with most major hospitals, advocates for universal healthcare.

Can you explain to me why you think a woman with no experience in healthcare and no medical qualifications, with an admitted political agenda which is the basis of her book, is a valid source of data on the healthcare industry, versus every major medical associations and most major hospitals in the United States?

Right now, it appears to me you actually aren't trying to research anything, but rather are trying to look for validation of your political views. Can you comment on that?

or this?

Also, you claim that data I have presented here is false and comes from democratic talking points. Can you please point out what I have said that is an untrue Democratic talking point?
 
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Ah yes, the "if you believe in some limits, therefore you have to believe in the complete extreme" straw man.

I asked:
So should we allow people to die of starvation if they can't afford food through no fault of their own?​

You answered:
Feel free to give to those in need according you your own conscience, don't force others to do so though.​

I pointed out that the logical conclusion then is that the government allows its citizens to die of starvation unless individuals or charities are able to feed them.

Because I believe in certain basic limited services are best delivered through the government.

Unless I misunderstood, you wrote that you feel that ambulances should be provided by the government. So should they provide you health care when they get to your house? If you need to go to the hospital, should the ambulance check to make sure you have insurance first and just let you die at home if you don't?

How about the hospital -- should it be required to treat you after the ambulance brings you in? Who should pay for that if you don't have insurance?

Ah yes, the "if you believe in some limits, therefore you have to believe in the complete extreme" straw man. You seem to have quite the habit of throwing out straw men in many of your postings.

Nope, you must be confusing my posts with someone else's. I was just asking what your criteria are in deciding what services the government should provide and shouldn't provide and to whom it should provide those services.

-Bri
 
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Okay, I'm realizing now that my terribly clumsy hypothetical was taken at face value. I do not have cancer. I sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.
Hooray! Sorry I misunderstood you post. But actually, glad I misunderstood, rather than what I understood be true.

So basically you have to be poor to qualify.

But the problem is not everyone unable to afford necessary medical treatment is poor.
Ka ching!

The system has ample room for improvement. See my example about prescription drugs above: cost controls are for sure an issue not getting enough emphasis.
 
No. In hindsight, lifespans in Hiroshima dropped steeply on 1945-08-06, and it was not because the health care system got worse, relative to previous days or to Kyoto or Yokohama. Lifestyle choices, mostly, and the quality of care make the difference in aggregate longevity between US and, say, Belgium.

Ok, then on what basis do you claim that US health care is superior? Where's your evidence for that claim? It isn't like other first world countries don't have obesity problems, greater smoking problems, etc, etc. I am not sure why you think somehow their lifestyle choices are so much better and yet their health care must be inferior. Seems like you are taking a dogmatic stance on the latter.

Edit: Here's one study on the subject.

It's a bit hard to find a nice comparison on the efficacy of care. I'll look for it. There's some crappy research out there that shows, in the past at least, Americans rated their system higher than other countries (e.g. essentially a popularity poll). When you looked at the effectiveness of treatment for problems things were pretty much even.

What lifestyle choice can I make to not get testicular cancer?

Snip-snip?
 
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This was in the Boston Globe today and represents for me what a more hands off approach has led to:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics..._perrys_texas_faces_widening_health_care_gap/

Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the country - 24.6 percent...And what is the price Texas pays for so many without insurance? A host of health problems, researchers have found. Overall health care quality for Texas is poorer than in every other state, especially when it comes to preventive, acute, and chronic care, as well as care for diabetes, heart, and respiratory diseases, according to the 2010 report of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
 

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