X-Message-Number: 30164
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: DSS points
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 09:01:30 +0100

On 16 Dec 2007, at 12:16, John de Rivaz wrote:

> Is "health service free at the point of service" really working?  
> Money is partly a method of rationing, and if the service is free  
> but has limited availability then another form of rationing has to  
> be used. It is physically impossible for anything else to happen.  
> In the UK, the NHS has "a postcode lottery" and expensive drugs are  
> often not available on free or subsidised prescription, even to  
> save life.

There is no doubt that any approach can be corrupted or mismanaged.  
However, if we compare Canada, which is free at the point of service,  
and the USA, which is market based, we see that the Canadian system  
is twice as effective (spends half the money) and people live a few  
years longer.  The USA is the only highly industrialized economy that  
persists in using the payment at the point of service model.

The decline of the NHS can be traced back to creation of an internal  
market within the system, for ideological reasons. However, the  
failures of the market don't seem to have any impact on the thinking  
of free market fundamentalists. This fundamentalism is as great a  
threat to cryonics as any other, if not more so, since it tends to  
plunge entire populations into poverty, making suspension costs  
unpayable.

You may recall that the Canada-USA comparison was made by me not long  
ago on this List. And the person I replied to was notified that after  
many years, the limit of my toleration for his abuse had been  
reached. Try to come up with new arguments, if you wish to have a  
response.


dss


David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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