The future of American Healthcare

[mbossman2]

English NHS:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=490001&in_page_id=1770

The drug Mr Hill needs is called Tarceva. It is available for free in Scotland but not in England, as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence found it was not "an effective use of NHS resources".

Get used to that phrase: "Not an effective use of...resources"

you are going to hear that a lot with universal healthcare.

[VF500]

We hashed the hell out of that one on BBO. Federally sponsored health care has everyone worried except Democrats. The Canadian model gets a lot of play as being the model system. What most people don't realize is 80% of all Canadians live within a hundred miles on the US border. The US has been the safety net for the Canadian system for decades. I've forgotten what the percentage is of Canadian patients that get referred to the US for treatment by Canadian doctors. It's like twenty or twenty-five percent. Waiting to get a heart transplant in Canada is like a prisoner on death row waiting to be executed here.

[mbossman2]

the issue is that there is only a finite amount of resources available to healthcare, no matter how much us taxed from some or all of the people, there is far more need than resources (monies, facilities, personnel).

I have several minds when it comes to this:
1) these "44 million" (which is way high but that was covered in a previous thread) are in desperate need of immediate and ongoing medical care. they will then flood into the system swamping the existing facilities.
2) the "44 million" didn't get medical care unless they absolutely needed it, my gut says that the majoirty won't change their behavior, so we have a huge expenditure, creating another self perpetuating bureaucracy.
3) with the limitations of resources, patient reimbursement will begin to drop, lowering the incomes of the frontline care providers (doctors and nurses) and with the costs of medical school and training, it is quite possible (and likely) that the ROI on the costs of being a doctor, no longer make it a financially attractive career path. Putting even more pressure on the system.