Posted: Mar 26, 2013 6:43 am
Loren Michael wrote:
The rest of your post doesn't justify that statement.It appears to have been quite impossible for governments to regulate for-profit healthcare in a manner that keeps costs to consumers within some reasonable realm, whereas costs in single-payer systems have been much easier to manage and control and keep in line with a society's ability to pay.
The choice may not be purely an either/or situation because other factors are in play, the morality of making money from people's health problems or misfortunes, for example, or relying upon the "allocative" effects of market economics to determine the rate of access to healthcare services.
Canadians spend half what their American counterparts spend for healthcare per capita (about $3K/annum versus $6K/annum) and get better outcomes. The choice then between one approach and the other is a no brainer.
None of that suggets that the choice is EITHER single payer OR allowing more routine procedures to be performed by nurses.
Obviously, I did not take this to be your meaning, which you should have apprehended no later than six sentences into my post.
All you said was, "Oh, is it an either/or issue?" And that was in response to a comment by me in which I refered to single-payer healthcare. You could have been a bit clearer. You have a bad habit of being less than clear because you think it gives you wiggle room to genuflect and alter course if things dont work out to your liking.
There's no doubt that allowing more routine procedures to be performed by nurses would lower the costs of healthcare. However, by what degree or to what extent we don't know, and I expect it wouldn't be significant in the bigger picture.
And trying to get such a change made is probably little more than dreaming. The medical profession has worked hard to get protections in place regarding who does what and they won't surrender them easily. In fact, I'd presume they'd fight any such proposition to the death.
So where does that leave you?
I'd say just about nowhere, that's where, although the truth you posited remains standing.