1) Not having a distorted tax structure.
American individuals cannot pay for healthcare with pretax dollars. American corporations can. This causes huge distortions, since people who have someone else paying for something have no incentive to seek lower costs. At the same time, those who do not have employment through the proper corporation pay a fortune for healthcare
2) Protecting doctors from outrageous frivolous lawsuits
Tort law in the United States is clearly abused. No where does this come more apparent than healthcare. American doctors perform plenty of marginally necessary tests, treatments, and surgeries just to make sure that they will not get sued in the 1 in a million chance that patient x actually needed whatever they just expensively provided.
3) Reduced paperwork and processing costs
Having everyone going through the same system means everyone uses the same paperwork. A significant part of America's healthcare system is dedicated entirely to processing claims.
4) Letting people just die
This is the rub. It is often claimed that a large percentage of US healthcare spending is spent on the last year of life. How much of Europe's is spend on that year? Do Europeans just let the old croak? I don't have a problem with this, but I think I deserve a fair answer before the US goes down the road of nationalization. As well, what if a little kid gets lukemia or some other awful disease which has a very high treatment cost with at least a relatively low chance of survival. At what point does a European government just go "to hell with it. Let the brat die". Again, I hate children and would throw most through a wood chipper if I had the chance, though feet first and just slowly enough to milk them for the maximum number of tears for my martinis, so I don't have a problem with this.
But unfortunately, one needs to have these answers at the ready if one is to advocate nationalized healthcare in the United States. This issue will eventually come up, and I'm surprised no one seems to have addressed it. What percentage of European savings on healthcare spending come from just letting people die instead of treating them?
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