US/healthcare/costs

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United States: health issues: health care costs

Overview

Health care costs are a major problem in the United States. Many possible solutions have been advanced, but very little progress has been made towards settling on any given solution, and the problem continues to get worse.

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Links

Editorials

• 2007-04-25 Overconfidence Erases Doc Advantage by Robin Hanson
• 2004-04-21 The Profit in Pills (Alliance for Retired Americans)
• Born in the USSR: "I survived Soviet health care--barely." Includes some horrific details from North Korea This should probably be moved to a more general health care article at some point. --W.

News

• 2006-06-20 How to Fix Our Health Care Mess by Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown: "Bush's prescription-drug program is a boondoggle for America's fraud-ridden health-industrial complex. A better choice is available, and it's time to fight for it."
• 2005-12-07 Access To Existing Medical Treatments Could Save More Lives Than Spending To Improve The Treatments
• 2005-07-13 WikiNews: more cost-effective in Canada

Opinion

• 2006-07-17 Clinton, Health Care Industry Get Cozy (related: Hillary Clinton)
• 2004-05-27 Bush's Health Care Scam by Robert Kuttner (related: George W. Bush)
• The AMA Strikes Back "AMA chapters in several states have introduced legislation to allow doctors to refuse non-critical treatment to lawyers and their spouses. This comes as a result of Tort Reform legislation that the AMA has been backing." Is this true?

Related Pages

• Sicko, a feature-length movie by Michael Moore

Quotes

The Rockridge Institute said:

The next instance of a conservative frame in a question was by co-host Scott Spradling: SPRADLING: Thanks, Wolf. Senator Edwards, question for you, sir. I was struck by your conversation that you had a moment ago about dishonesty in politics, and wanting to make things clear. This is a health care question for you, and really focusing on price tags here. Governor Richardson, for example, says that you can fund health care meaningfully without raising taxes. Senator Clinton has said that she's not prepared to say she will raises taxes to reform health care. Your plan does raise some taxes to fund your universal health care program. So I am wondering: From your perspective, are they being honest about the true costs of universal health care in America? This question was framed as if the "true costs" of health care mean only taxes! As Spradling hinted, the implementation of universal health care will require taxes to be raised. Operating within the conservative worldview, Spradling implied that taxes are always bad. Rockridge has previously discussed the conservative view of taxes. In the conservative worldview, taxes are interpreted as a burden that the government must lighten (as opposed to the progressive view that taxes contribute to infrastructure, protection, and citizen empowerment). In any direct "answer" to the question, the conservative framing is accepted. The question also suggested that taxes are the only "costs" of a national health care system, effectively ignoring the progressive notion that there are similar costs to society for not implementing universal health care. There are costs to the labor market, costs to doctors and nurses, costs to rural communities, and human costs. The U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world due to our lack of pre and post-natal care. We rank 33rd in life expectancy for males and 32nd in life expectancy for females. These statistics should have been presented as the "costs" of not implementing a wide-reaching health care policy for U.S. citizens.

And none of this even gets to the fact that federal taxes don't pay for government operations but are all used to service the national debt...