Comment by wpm
15 hours ago
It's funny, I'm told my whole adult life "We can't be like Europe! We're too different! We're too heterogenous/big/special/insert_excuse_here!"
And yet, we can point to a number on their balance sheet and say full stop "This is what we shall spend and nothing more, if it still sucks, skill issue."
WHY does America spend trillions more on healthcare than our peers? Is it because of welfare queens on Medicaid? Or is it the scumsuckers in the private health insurance industry, in a system that keeps most people in all but indentured servitude to their employer to even be able to afford the privilege of getting dropped by the insurance companies the second you get sick?
Is there waste? Sure.
Tell me how just going in like Ron Swanson and slashing the shit out of every budget while simultaneously blowing up the debt with tax cuts fixes any of that.
Slashing will not fix the problem. Nor will more taxing and spending fix it.
The problem is systemic. We have an out of control health system that is steadily growing as a percent of GDP while providing less and less value to less and less people.