The World’s Worst Health Care Reforms

are apparently Russia, Turkmenistan, China, and the USA. You can read all about it here.  As the site says:

The United States has the rare distinction of being both one of the world’s richest countries and having one of its least-functional health care systems.Americans spend around one in every six dollars on healthcare. But, in aggregate, they’re not getting much bang for their buck. People in the United States are as likely to die from diseases like lung cancer as citizens in all OECD countries – which, on average, spend less than half as much per capita.

Looks like reform is in order.

About shaunmiller

I have just completed a visiting position as an assistant professor at Dalhousie University. My ideas are not associated with my employer; they are expressions of my own thoughts and ideas. Some of them are just musings while others could be serious discussions that could turn into a bigger project. Besides philosophy, I enjoy martial arts (Kuk Sool Won), playing my violin, enjoying coffee around town, and experimenting with new food.
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4 Responses to The World’s Worst Health Care Reforms

  1. thekillerj says:

    Heck yeah it’s in order. I just don’t know if the “What’s good for Sweden is good for the U.S.” approach is best. For one thing, I really don’t want half my paycheck going to morbidly obese, chain smoking pricks who lack personal accountability.

    • shaunmiller says:

      KillerJ,

      How about this for a solution? Would you like every product to be taxed so that its price includes payment for what it indirectly costs society? For example, should the price of cigarettes be raised so that smokers pay for the added medical costs they incur? Should gasoline taxes be increased to that motorists bear the costs of pollution and acid rain? Should soda and fast food be taxed so that obese people literally pay for their own medical bills? I think you get the idea of other things to be taxed. That way, society doesn’t have to pay for these irresponsible acts, and these other things are taxed so that a) you have a choice in buying these products or not, so the accountability lies on the individual, and b) you aren’t responsible for these individuals who decide to be irresponsible.

      • thekillerj says:

        I’m generally against taxes, but this idea intrigues me. I’ll have to think about it. What about tax CUTS for physically fit bad asses like yourself?

  2. shaunmiller says:

    Hmmm. . . interesting proposal. So instead of punishing people for doing bad things, you reward them for doing good things. That might help. Studies show that rewarding people actually brings more results than punishing people. So how would you cut taxes by rewarding people? I would say we can start by physical and mental health.

    For the physical, I guess you would have to show either a) that you work in a field that requires a lot of physical work, like construction work or something like that, or b) show your gym membership card to the IRS. It’ll be complex, but we’ll start there. Maybe you get a 20% rebate from the government just from joining the gym.

    As for mental, the only obvious sign would be college degrees. How about a 1% tax cut for associates? 2% for Bachelors? 4.5% for Masters? and 16.75% for Ph. D.? So theoretically, if you got 8 Ph. D.’s, you won’t have to pay taxes. Now imagine that. We’d have a really smart population, it’ll give them an incentive to go to college. They’ll have to borrow money from the government or banks. Either way, it’ll really boost the economy when they have to pay back all those loans and the government may get out of debt. Plus, we’ll be physically fit. It’s a good start.

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