[links] Link salad still wishes we had single payer in the US

[jaylake]

Boondocks Fantasy reviewed - Not so much with the liking of my story "Jefferson's West".

Space Stasis: What the strange persistence of rockets can teach us about innovation. - Neal Stephenson on space technology. An objection to this essay from Stirling Newberry. (Nicked here from james_nicoll.)

Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere - Some social

Comments

[anton_p_nym]

?otD: Do you believe full access to healthcare is a right or a privilege?

In my opinion it's one of those things that's vastly more efficient when made universal than it is when handled as an a la carte service. Much like access to highways; the current US health insurance system handles much like the Interstates would if they were all toll-roads... slow, expensive, inefficient, inconvenient, with vast and wasteful bureaucracies necessary to administrate the complicated billing systems. (Only the highways would be better than the current US health insurance system, as there are a lot fewer ways you can bill for a toll road and then deny service.)

Yes, here in Canada I pay a lot more in taxes than I would in the US. What you won't hear in the US media, though, how much of the difference is wiped out when you factor in what I pay for my health insurance coverage through work; $40/month is my share for my supplemental plan which includes international coverage, short-term disability coverage, 90% of prescriptions, 80% of dental care, and a rather baroque (but unnecessary for me, thankfully) form of coverage for vision care. Oh, and it's illegal here in Canada to impose "lifetime" caps.

Some wait times are longer here, but mostly for chronic and non-life-threatening conditions; acute care here is about the same as in the US.* I'd argue that we've concentrated a bit too much on acute care, which is why you have speedy service for cardiac surgery but long wait times for hip replacements, but it's a tough balance to strike. Our emergency care is about on-par (except without the insurance hassles) and our preventative care is vastly better for most of the population here.

-- Steve's met more than one person who found it cheaper to live in Canada due to the high cost of private insurance in the US... and that's assuming the carrier actually antes up in a timely manner instead of stalling on every payment.

* The big exception is certain forms of diagnostics, notably CAT and MRI. I'd argue that the US vastly overinvested in that, leading to absurdly low waits and over-reliance on that sort of testing, though again it's a tough balance to strike.