Health Care North American Style
Posted by TruthFreedom1 10 years, 10 months ago to Government
While a Canadian I am watching our health care system which has worked fine for years since Tommy Douglas start to become deregulated. Prices climbing and Big Pharma starting to run the show. While our situation is not as desperate as yours south of the 49th. I do believe that Big Pharma, Big Oil and Wall street rule the roost in Washington. As a Canadian I'm interested in your opinions.
The fact is that life expectancy is going up. When this article says "unnecessary deaths" can you please tell me what a "necessary" death would look like? Death always has a degree of avoid ability.
People own themselves. They own whatever their body does. If it commits murder, they own the responsibility of that action. If it builds a house, they own the result of that action.
Now, a lot of the so called "unnecessary deaths" would be avoided if the government couldn't interfere. Almost everyone agrees that the government does a horrible job at whatever it tries to do so we should accept that it is just soaking up wealth that is actually produced. Perhaps then people would be able to afford their medication and legitimate doctors. Either way I don't want to get too far into anarchy on this post.
Sticking to just the way things are, death is sad. I don't want people to die and very few do wish death on others. But we can't use the government to force others to alleviate our feelings. I could be bawling my eyes out at my father's death bed, but it wouldn't be morally right for me to rob a bank to pay for his procedure. Nor would it be right to pay a thug to point a gun at my doctors head to do the treatment for free. Nor would it be right for me to petition congress to enact a law forcing pharmaceutical companies to lower their prices.
Just some quick food for thought:
All laws logically result in the death penalty.
Break the law, any law, Jay walking, carrying pot, what have you.
Refuse to pay the fine, give your name, or simply ignore the man in the blue suit with a gun.
Defend yourself when the man with the gun attacks you, and he will shoot you.
So where do you decide to surrender your freedom? By not doing what they tell you not to do?
By not paying what they tell you you have to pay?
By not fighting back when they fight you?
But what about big pharma. Are they overcharging for life saving procedures? Is their lobbying forcing the price of medicine up and are we being told to pay for medication that isn't really needed? Currently our cost for medication in Canada is substantially cheaper than down there in the Good Old US of A. I have to wonder why that is. Probably because it is regulated to keep the cost down for government. Just food for thought is all.
Obviously the government is listening to people with the most money, which means you can't deny that the big medical companies are at a bare minimum influencing government regulations. With the government's inability to influence the market, the big Pharma would not gain anything by spending its money on lobbying, and would have more cash to spend on nothing, or possibly research or possibly just letting their prices. I couldn't tell you what they would do with the money but even if a small portion of it went to research or lowering prices it would have a large impact on sure.
The competition would also soar with a deregulation on doctors. I don't know who controls the process of determining who is licensed for what, but I know that if it was a private company who had Competition from other private companies who certify doctors, there would be more incentive to lower prices. To be fair this would also result in less skilled doctors on average, but that would mean lower prices. If some one couldn't afford a life saving procedure under our current system, they would be able to go to a less renowned doctor for far lower prices which is a risk to be sure, but better than nothing. The benefit of this can also be seen for the doctor who gains more credibility by performing successful operations. Word spreads quickly these days about which businesses know what they are doing and which don't.
I don't know why costs are lower in Canada but if I could make a theory it would be because:
A. In America our system allows companies to make competition unable to compete effectively through regulations on who can sell what and how safe something has to be to use it.
B. It costs the ssme here as it does in Canada but your government uses taxes to subsidize it so the average citizen has no idea whether he is actually paying more or less.
C. Canada is forcing drug companies to sell at a centrally controlled price.
There are obviously going to be more theories but honestly I'm young and more interested in philosophy than medicine so I haven't and won't give it much thought.
On a side note, and don't mean this as insulting I just want you to think about it, you say that "as a Canadian with mostly free health care" before stating your opinion. This means you are aware you have an inclination to be biased towards a conclusion. It also suggests that what you think is good is based heavily on the culture around you. I just want you to be careful when forming opinions that you take into account how you would feel if you were part of a different culture, say one that was losing so much wealth through taxes you could easily identify that your cheap medication wasn't cheap for you at all. Sorry that was worded poorly.
"This is a plan by design of the pharmaceutical manufacturers, meaning the pharmaceutical giants have manipulated the entire bunch of us - patients and doctors and government - to continue to look to their pharmaceutical drugs as the end all, be all of these chronic diseases.
Their sole intent is to keep us on their drugs, not to find a real cure, and it’s of little consequence to them that these drugs cause harm and suffering. [...]
A fifteen-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry says that the pharmaceutical companies are not in the business of 'health and healing' but instead the business of
'disease maintenance and symptom management. '
from Chemical Hell on Earth
( http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienci... )
http://www.conferenceboard.ca/cashc/rese... (about Canadian health care