Yeah, the US has a problem with spending more on healthcare than any other country, but it isn’t a “profit” or “administrative overhead” problem.
(Insurance companies have legally limited profit margins on health insurance.)
Does multiple private insurances add a little administrative overhead? Sure, but nowhere near as much as you see in the OECD figures.
There are many reasons why US healthcare is so expensive.
Some of them have to do with litigation: Skyhigh insurance premiums and a medical “Cover your ass”-culture with unneeded tests and MRIs done on a regular basis.
(In Canada, there is a legal ceiling on how much in damages you can sue a doctor/hospital for. This would be a good idea to implement in the US.)
Another added expense is free riders: All the people that show up in the ER, whether because of the flu or a gunshot, get treated/operated on, and never pay their bill.
Another issue is that the US has some of the best doctors in the world, and new, prohibitively expensive treatments are often introduced here first.
Many, very expensive treatments simply aren’t done (or done very rarely) in countries where the public (fully or in part) pay for treatments.
Waiting lists are another way of limiting costs in European countries. (Waiting lists that can be over a year long, but their healthcare systems are arguably cheaper to run.)
I could bring up some new medicines that in the US cost thousands of dollars per week (Crohns medication for example.) In European countries those medications simply aren’t available, or are only available on an exemption: Meaning that your doctor need to apply to have the cost covered, and is usually turned down.
Another example would be something like SRS surgeries.
These can be extremely expensive, and are covered by insurance, which of course increases the costs of coverage for everyone.
In European countries you’d either face a very long waiting list to get the operation covered, or you wouldn’t be eligible for it. Or only eligible after jumping through extensive hoops.
Imagine sitting and complaining about “techno optimism”, when the very thing you write your screed on, is a product of it.
Instant access to a world wide fountain of knowledge, a super computer in your pocket, never having seen hunger and the ability to travel anywhere around the world cheaply and quickly.
No, we don’t have flying cars or bases on Mars, but if you look at the techno optimism of the 1960’ies and where we are today, we’ve done a pretty good job at turning it into a reality.
Kirk’s communicator or his tablet thingie? Those are actually a real and tangible reality today.
First of all, healthcare in many European countries is often insurance based.
Yes, in some cases it’s socialized. And in those places the healthcare system is rapidly falling apart/getting worse, and everyone who can afford it goes private.
Just look at the boom in private doctors/insurance in countries like the UK and Denmark.
And of course you also ignore the price paid in the form of taxes, VAT, etc. (Nope, not corporate taxes, which in Europe tend to be lower than in the US.)
If you wanted to nationalize healthcare in the US, you’re basically talking about adding trillions to an already bloated Federal budget.
For some reason, I’ve yet to see a solution to that problem that wasn’t some kind of immature, unproductive slogan throwing like “tax the rich!”
Funny how the people always banging on about the evils of capitalism have never actually lived under a communist system.
And also seem to believe there’s some sort of socialist Utopia in Europe/Scandinavia, despite the fact that social democracy has been dead there for decades.
Then again, in general anti capitalists are a fairly ignorant bunch, who’ve never let reality get in the way of their dogmatic politics.
Because you know, entrepreneurs aren’t an integral part of who helps shape the future. They’re evil capitalists. And in the future they’ll be evil space capitalists.
Techno optimism wasn’t just a sci-fi thing, it was the spirit of the times to a large extent in the Western World and Eastern Block alike.
All the “Better living through chemistry” and dreams of tiny nuclear power reactors in every car and house, providing virtually free energy to all.
And to a certain extent THEY WERE RIGHT!
The green revolution in the 60ies revolutionized agriculture, and made a world with more than a few billion people possible.
Folks growing up in the 60ies were the first generation in Europe, the USSR and US (Heck, in many countries around the world) who grew up never having seen famine or real hunger.
Things that were once unobtainable luxuries, like cars or airplane travel, became something within reach of regular people.
The techno optimism might appear quaint today, but likewise we have forgotten just how much life has been transformed for the better.
If you look back at sci-fi from the 60ies, despite it appearing utopian today, it often dealt with the anxieties and issues of the day.
Trek is a good example. It’s often hailed as “utopian” and “visionary” today, totally ignoring the Cold War themes, fear of technology (Just look at how many times Kirk faced an intelligent computer antagonist!), overpopulation and of course the counter culture.
In the space hippie episode (Which Way to Eden?) Spock even talks about the discomfort many people feel with technology and the universal longing for a pre-technological eden.
I always liked SGA better, but you’re definitely right about SG 1.
Which of course begs another question: SG1 was made in a time that we can call the Golden Age of TV Sci fi, along with the Trek shows, Farscape and many more.
(Though granted: SG1 is probably more of an action adventure show at heart, if you want to get anal about classifications.)
Despite productions that cost hundreds of millions of dollars, why don’t we see show of the same quality today?
Yeah, there’s The Expanse and The Orville, but those two are the only exceptions in a media landscape almost barren of good sci-fi like SG-1.
I just can’t take it seriously when the author presents such falsehoods as Western “vaccine greed”.
(Both Moderna and Pfizer’s have made vaccines available at cost and promised not to go after parent infringement for the duration of the pandemic. It of course also ignores vaccines from other countries such as the Russian Sputnik vaccine.)
As for western countries buying five dosages for every citizen?
THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF GOVERNMENT IN GENERAL: To look after your citizens.
Likewise the emotional but intellectually vapid mentioning of food surplus in the US.
What exactly is the alternative? Ship food we’re about to throw out to the third world? How is it supposed to survive a 3 week trip on a container ship? What would the effect be on agriculture in the receiving countries? (Spoiler: Not good!)
Or are Americans perhaps supposed to hand out food for free in other countries? (Oh wait! That’s already being done! Even to hostile countries like North Korea)
Likewise the emotional argument about empty apartments in NYC, that completely ignores that homelessness is a complex problem, that often involves addiction, mental illness, antisocial behavior and is only rarely solved by just handing out free apartments.
The thing is that there are a lot of people out there who don’t particularly like fruits and vegetables (gourds or not), who can’t be bothered to spend hours every day on cooking “Real food” and/or who can’t afford “real food”.
I lost 75 Lbs thanks to cutting sugar and a ketonic diet.
I’m down to my ideal weight, but going back on the diet after a break, because I find that it works for me.
Considering that it was physicians who started the whole fat panic of the 70ies, and have been ignoring sugar for all these years, AND considering their ties to Big Pharma, I’m going to trust my own experience.
There’s no doubt that Apple has the building blocks for a console, between the A X/M X SOCs, Metal, Apple Arcade and Apple TV.
The only question is if they really want to further overextend themselves.
They’re already slipping on software like iOS and OS X (as in: Their software is becoming WORSE, not better.) while trying to break into TV and cars. Their hardware lineup is becoming more confusing and fragmented, not less.
Not really sure if Apple NEEDS another distraction right now.
They’ve lost focus.
TV shows, cars, VR headsets, six different iPad models.
So the small stuff suffers: iOS. OS X. AirPods. Airdrop.
Airdrop just stopped working for me recently. The clock app in iOS still only lets you have ONE reminder.