Healthcare from Dr. Krugman

Why do so many listen to this guy?
Hes really good @ twisting and ignoring facts yet hes so respected..I dont get it.

Another misleading thing listed in this NY Times articule is that their are "45 million people in America without health insurance" 9-10 million are illegals and another 10 million are Americans that CAN afford healthcare BUT chose not to have.

This is the other side of the argument that you didn't get to hear on the ABC Obamacare infomercial. It would have been nice if this side could have been heard from in that special instead of having just one side represented.

The government shot the patient in the foot, and is now offering to sell him crutches and a cast.

Paul Krugman is a shill and nothing more.

Because Krugman tells people what they want to hear.

American taxpayers foot the bill for most drug companies' research - it's called educational grants that most universities live on.

And the fact that US and Europeans have relatively the same life expectancies doesn't help your argument when the US pays 2x or more the cost of those other nations while insuring all.

What boss employing 24 people would want to hire a 25th? One wanting profits. The same kind who hire more under the current systems even when that means having to pay more.

John, you seem to have a lot of pretty lame reasons why universal healthcare is a bad thing, but not many good solutions to the pressing problem of US companies paying too much for inadequate health care. You probably have nice health insurance and, if you didn't, could afford to go out and get some. Most Americans aren't so fortunate. What would you do to assist them? Tell them to go work for the federal government?

Po, give me a break. Universities are not cranking out MRI machines, building new knee replacements, or developing new drugs. What university came up with Viagra, Prozac, Cipro, etc.? And I can tell you that no business employing 24 people will hire the 25th as the costs will be retroactive back to the first employee.

As a business owner I can also tell you medical insurance is outrageously expensive. The only way we've been able to contain the costs is by using a high deductible plan with HRA and HSA accounts. This works. Any workable solution must make the patient responsible for paying the first or early costs so they care about how much they spend. Giving it away for free is going to be a disaster.

BTW, we pay 100% of the employees health insurance and cover domestic partners. I bet this is more than you and your high horse have done for anyone.

The key to healthcare is to eat organic nutrient-dense foods that are minimally processed, and non-gmo is a plus. If everyone ate this way we would have an epidemic of health, performance, and productivity in this country. Of course, in such a situation, one would have to turn their back on believing what the government tells them is good to eat. By the way I don't agree with Krugman very often. He is a Keynesian that advocates government saving the day in all things financial. What he forgets is that the costs down the road are to great. He is a typical American I suppose.

Tort reform! There are too many lawyers in congress to do this, but the people need to pass tort reform to ease the strain on doctors and hospitals for liability insurance and crazy lawsuits. Why is the government only paying doctors and hospitals back at 80% of cost? They have to make that back by charging more to the rest of us. Let's get our facts straight before we dive headlong into another "doomed to fail" government debacle. Cost control can be done in the private sector, but government can't be waving the "free candy" at the masses and get a workable solution. We need the freedom to innovate and devise better and better health care, not be satisfied with rationed health care and a shrinking system. Let our doctors thrive, they earned it!

Missing a key cost driver: doctors in France get paid a small fraction of a US doctor's salary.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/06/physicians-incomes-and-healthcare-costs.html

(http://tinyurl.com/koh8yx)

I'm glad you touched on the subject of American subsidies to the health care of other countries. Canada does the same thing. In a free market a drug company would set a price, and people who didn't like that price wouldn't get the drug. However, Canada instead sets a lower price. The drug companies meet it, knowing they can make up the difference here in the USA.

You talk a lot about the coming health care bureaucracy as if the current system isn't bureaucratic. It's completely slow-moving, with lots of redundancies. Consider what happens when I take my child to the doctor. I get charged for the pediatrician. I also get charged if there are any shots administered. The clinic bills my insurer. It looks at the bill, denies a chunk of it and sends me a notice that states, "This is Not a Bill."

Meanwhile, the clinic gets the notice back and it tries to bill me for the deficiency. I call the insurer and say, "Why don't you cover the full amount for these vaccinations?" And around and around we go.

So, let's not kid ourselves. The health care industry is amazingly bureaucratic. Could NHS be less bureaucratic? I have no idea, but I doubt it could be more bureaucratic.

Government run health care, are you sure? Every try the governments other programs, like the DMV? Or better yet, drive by a highway construction zone that is behind schedule and over budget? That is another good example or something run or supervised buy the government! But everyone thinks that on health care it will be better and that the government is there and will help!
Trust me, I have been to government health care for 20 years while serving in the military! I have a wife and we had 2 children during those years, guess how many things where denied or scheduled months into the future, then changed or denied because latter was after a transfer or a change in policy!
An example would be this, the tooth that bothered me for a year and I was told repeatedly nothing was wrong, to wait or postpone examination or treatment, then when I was on leave it abscessed and I had to go to a non-military hospital. The tooth was fixed the next day! When I returned to the military, they were so overwhelmed that they could not finish the procedure and I was sent off base to have the work finished! Then all I needed was a cap put in the tooth which was to be done by the military dental and I waited for 6 months for the appointment only to have it canceled just prior to my retirement! “That’s OK” I was told because the Veterans Administration will take care of it.... OK now it has been another 6 months since I retired and I am still in the discussion as to why the VA should take care of this problem! I should just pay for it and get it fixed. I had a discussion with my present civilian dentist and he could be done with this in a week, so…. go free market!
Lastly, let me remind all you out there that for years the members of the military would work to get their families "Champused Out" in other words sent off base to get better civilian care. So what did the military do to correct this? They hired private contractors to assist in the workload at most military facilities and yes medical treatment did indeed improve!
To give a non-medical military example learned from the assistance from the private sector, housing for the military, for years it was done by the military and government personnel. It was expensive, slow, and rationed! Additionally in most cases this housing was mainly SUBSTANDARD and in most cases condemned! So the solution.... privatization, in other words get a private company in to do what it does for a profit for itself, and now take some time to ask many military families how much better there housing is!
Sorry fellow Americans, but I believe based on my experiences and what I have learned about this issue, government in our health care will not improve it.

The government should take the money they give back to people who don't pay taxes and buy them some private health care. They should require everyone to buy their own care after a certain income. Just like car insurance. People should own their own insurance; it should not depend on your job. If you don't get it, no refund on your taxes.

I don't know if others have commented on the French costs, but doctors in France receive much lower compensation than in the U.S. (So do MDs in Britain and Germany.) We could save a bundle by cutting doctors income by a half to four fifths (the latter being highly paid specialists). Does Krugman advocate this?

As a Canadian living in the US and my wife working in the healthcare system on both sides of the border we have a unique perspective. If we had to retire today, we would definitely retire to Canada specificaly for the healthcare system and not in spite of it. Canada has excellent care and maybe you should research what country has the best life expectancy and happiness ratings. after all, isn't that what it is all about? it isn't about GDP!!

When you talk to people from other developed countries who've experienced health care both in their country and here, without fail they say that their country's health care is better.

Why does ABC pay this libertarian ideologue to spout his propaganda?

Because he's more honest than you are. I've seen countless people proclaim American health care superior to the health care system in their country.

So talking about free market ideas is now propaganda? Go troll elsewhere.