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Single Payer is Doomed Before It Starts
American Thinker ^ | 02/09/2018 | Ted Noel, MD

Posted on 02/09/2018 10:31:00 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Donald Trump tweeted that Britain's National Health Service is "broke and not working." All too true: expenses have forced 40% of walk-in health centers to close, all elective surgery in January to be cancelled, and primary care has been decimated, it's not surprising that problems have surfaced. It is just as predictable that the usual call for "more money" echoes around the UK. All this is the result of economic laws that have been completely ignored since the days of Aneurin Bevan, the father of the UK NHS.

The first is the Law of Rationing. In short, "Everything is rationed, either by price or by rule." I can't afford a private jet. Price rationing limits those to people of substantial wealth, and their high price acts as a signal in the market to balance the supply of private jets with the market of willing buyers.

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But suppose that the government declared that private jets were free. Everyone would want one. Suddenly there would be a shortage of hangars and runway space. And to pay for the jets, taxes on workers would rise, because the workers who build private jets have to get paid. The unintended consequences are mind-blowing. Ultimately, the government would have to start limiting who could have private jets. First, they would require a pilot's license. Then, more secure hangars would be required. Finally, you'd have to prove that you really, really need a private jet.

Substitute "Free Health Care" for "Private Jets" and you get the picture. Nothing is free. As the protagonist in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress notes,

"Gospodin," he said presently, "you used an odd word earlier -- odd to me, I mean..."


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: healthcare; medicare; nhs; obamacare; singlepayer; theresamay; unitedkingdom

1 posted on 02/09/2018 10:31:00 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

This is example number one million that Ronald Reagan was right. “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”


2 posted on 02/09/2018 10:36:56 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: SeekAndFind

If it were financially possible Vermont and/or California would have done it by now.


3 posted on 02/09/2018 10:48:21 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: SeekAndFind

Thank you for the article. If I wasn’t interested, I would not have clicked on it.

I was.

I did.

I’m glad.

(In before the self-appointed, self-important, but really irrelevant blog cops.)


4 posted on 02/09/2018 10:50:42 AM PST by ExGeeEye (For dark is the suede that mows like a harvest.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I knew that NHS was broken months before Trump said that it was. The media has successfully kept the truth from the American public, so the media now feels it has the right to condemn Trump for saying this.

F*ck the media.


5 posted on 02/09/2018 12:05:34 PM PST by I want the USA back (Cynicism may just keep you from going insane in a world that has chosen its own demise.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Oddly enough, probably the worst problem facing US healthcare is that its logistical support uses a “push system”. That is, supplies, equipment, materials, pharma, etc., have almost no backup, and are not produced until they are almost gone. This is already leading to troublesome shortages.

FDA drug shortages list.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/drugshortages/default.cfm

With any major disaster, acute shortages could affect entire regions overnight. This happened after Katrina.

So what is needed is a logistical database, listing just about everything needed, integral to which is its timetable.

For example, say IV saline, a very common needed medical supply. You need the saline itself, a bag, tubing and syringes. The clean water can be easily stored, as can the medical grade salt, empty bags, tubing and syringes.

Not just the federal government, but even state governments could have “dynamic” stockpiles of these things: they buy them from the business that assembles them; then they sell them back to the business as part of its regular flow through. This creates a production buffer, so the business won’t be forced to stop production if say there is a glitch from their tubing provider.

Overall cost is quite low.


6 posted on 02/09/2018 12:23:52 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Liberals have become moralistic, dogmatic, sententious, self-righteous, pinch-faced prudes.)
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To: I want the USA back; Leaning Right

Had my yearly physical this a.m.

My internist and I discussed nationalized health care systems and what is going on in health care here in the US.

My doc is in her early 70’s so has been practicing medicine for quite a while. She said over the years she has seen a corporate take over of medicine. She said it went hand in hand with the government takeover of medicine which started way before we though it did.

And also said she started to see the rationing on health care to medicare patients for the last few years. The new thing is to hold ER patients in “observation status” It has do with increased reimbursements if you don’t admit them immediately. (Plan to research this more tomorrow.)

It’s extremely difficult for your personal doc to be allowed to take care of you if you would become hospitalized. Hospital corporations have their own corporate docs who don’t have a clue who you are. (And can basically could care a rats ass about you)

I said to her, Regan said “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government...”
And before I could finish, she said “and I’m here to help.”

She great!

Patients are hosed.


7 posted on 02/09/2018 3:55:53 PM PST by lizma2
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To: lizma2

> The new thing is to hold ER patients in “observation status” <

I’ve read that as well. And the article was very emphatic. It’s either something you should demand, or something that you should angrily decline. I just can’t remember which one it was! Maybe it’s something you should ask for as an alternative to just being sent away.

Please let me know if you find out anything more.


8 posted on 02/09/2018 6:33:34 PM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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