Mag Lev and China

Re: [spiers] Medical outsourcing

I see one problem with these plans, in two variations...

The problem is ultimately, it leaves the definition of "medicine" in the hands
of politicians,
and their henchmen in big biz and big govt, which means less, lousy, more
expensive and
slower medicine over time. Either A. the govt will change standards to lower
costs, or B. the
market will fail to reward innovation, leaving USA like the soviet union when it
comes to
medicine. (Comrade, when you are done with that needle, please hand it to
me...)

Or both.

John


On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:25:23 -0500, "Randal Tietz" wrote
:

>
> John,
>
> You are a very optimistic man. I just read the first post about medical
outsourcing and your
(wishful?) comment " Why, if something is not done about this trend, we might
see reform of
medicine in USA!." Then I saw this gem today from the AMA:
>
> >Millions of upper-income Americans refuse to buy health insurance because
they're
young and healthy and figure they don't need it.
> But now the American Medical Association wants to force them to buy coverage.
> At its annual meeting in Chicago on Tuesday, the nation's largest doctors'
group called for
mandatory health insurance for anyone who makes more than five times the poverty
level.
That works out to $49,000 for an individual and $100,000 for a family of four.
>
> No one would go to jail for refusing to buy coverage. The AMA instead
suggested using the
tax code to force compliance. There would be incentives such as tax credits for
people who
buy insurance and higher taxes for those who don't.
>
> Of the 46 million uninsured Americans, about 5 million, or 11 percent, make
more than
five times the poverty level. The AMA said these people burden the health care
system when
they incur catastrophic medical bills they can't afford to pay. The cost gets
passed on to
those who largely pay for the health care system: taxpayers, employers and the
insured.
>
> "Society should not be penalized by the potential costly medical treatments of
those
uninsured who can afford to purchase health insurance coverage," an AMA report
said. <
http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-ama14.html
>
> When it passes, and it will in some form pass, it can be titled the "American
Medical System
Full Employment Act" This is a variant of the Massachusetts law making it
mandatory for its
residents to purchase health insurance.
>
> Where are all the "get government off the back of the people" conservatives
now? The "free
market" advocates in Washington D.C. seem to be missing in action here. I wonder
why.
>
> R.L. Tietz

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