> As it turns out, central planning fails in healthcare just like it fails everywhere else
Virtually every rich country except America manages to provide “free at point of use” healthcare because of government intervention. And of note, if you’re not happy with what the government provides in most of these countries, you can usually top up to gold-plated health care at a fraction of the cost in the US. Last I checked, the US also managed to do this just fine where it has to: the VHA spends about as much as the NHS does and also gets excellent outcomes.
Talking about “the Canadian experience” seems strange to me: don’t each of the provinces/territories do it differently? The Manitobans in my family seem very happy with the provision they get. Regardless, 75% of Canadians are “proud” of Canadian health provision[0].
Most rich countries (that aren’t America) also have essentially instant and free transfers between bank accounts … because either the government intervened or threatened to intervene.
Healthcare is a provincial jurisdiction, but the federal government provides a lot of the funding and attaches strings - the chief one being participation in the "Canada Health Act" which mandates a ban on private pay for publicly-insured services.
Most people who have glowing things to say about it have had minimal interactions with the system. The overall data shows predictable results when government intervention completely skews market incentives: the patient experience blows, administration is bloated to hell, it lacks capacity, and it bleeds healthcare professionals across the border where pay and working conditions are generally better.
The fact that anyone defends the system as it's currently designed is honestly baffling to me. If you took another essential industry - food - and applied similar incentives (any food paid for by government can't be purchased privately, government sets the rates, etc.) most people would correctly predict it would be disastrous.
> Most people who have glowing things to say about it have had minimal interactions with the system
On this, I’m curious about your experiences with the US system: do you buy your own or is it provisioned via an employer? Have you mostly been financially secure while interacting with it?
Virtually every rich country except America manages to provide “free at point of use” healthcare because of government intervention. And of note, if you’re not happy with what the government provides in most of these countries, you can usually top up to gold-plated health care at a fraction of the cost in the US. Last I checked, the US also managed to do this just fine where it has to: the VHA spends about as much as the NHS does and also gets excellent outcomes.
Talking about “the Canadian experience” seems strange to me: don’t each of the provinces/territories do it differently? The Manitobans in my family seem very happy with the provision they get. Regardless, 75% of Canadians are “proud” of Canadian health provision[0].
Most rich countries (that aren’t America) also have essentially instant and free transfers between bank accounts … because either the government intervened or threatened to intervene.
0: https://biv.com/article/2020/08/covid-19-crisis-has-failed-e...