Even if you “support it”, I’d much rather watch the implications from the various experiments across states. Then we can select the best option.
Personally, I’d like to see some states ban healthcare outright. Others have full coverage and everything in between. Then wait 10 years and we can see the results. I strongly suspect there would be states willing to do this.
US salaries for healthcare are the best on the planet, period.
The comparison (and to be fair, this is a very high level) paints an extremely clear picture:
United States $313,000
Germany $163,000
United Kingdom $138,000
France $108,000
Per: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-highest-p...
So yes, I absolutely want to see how many physicians stick around if you tell them "your salary will now be half and we're maxing our your workload". Alternatively, I want to see how long the State's finances last if they say "we'll pay the national market rate for your services and we're now maxing our your workload".
And even then I don't want 10 years, I want a generation or two. Even pre-COVID we had multiple surveys indicating that 60-70% of doctors would not recommend becoming a doctor. I want to see how that number changes as States run their experiments.
should be fine if they pay their student loans no? isnt that the main reason the salaries are so high? cost of living + debt
It's because the NIH limits the amounts of medical residencies in the country, and to become a doctor with a license to practice, you must have completed residency somewhere. The amount of doctors in the US are kept at low numbers because of this.
The option almost everyone picks is “no one”. Keep supply of your services low and increasing demand means more money for you.
The AMA is actually doing a great job at this recently compared to the ABA, where there have been too many lawyers graduating recently for insane salaries except at the top.
[0] https://www.npr.org/2018/03/09/592333771/severe-shortage-of-...
Why would they bother to leave? Physician salaries might still very well be highest in the world.
Software
United States of America $95,879
United Kingdom $68,664 = 72% USA
Germany $61,390 = 64% USA
France $47,617 = 50% USA
Medicine
United States of America $313,000
United Kingdom $138,000 = 44% USA
Germany $163,000 = 52% USA
France $108,000 = 35% USA
(I believe the software salaries I've sourced are somewhat conservative)
[0] https://www.codingame.com/work/blog/find-developers/average-...
This is the most HN comment I've ever seen
For reference, the idea is to optimize for public good. Banning insurance would drop fees dramatically because people would get less unnecessary work done. At the same time, hospitals and others would be willing to offer loans provided you could pay it off. This would drive down costs to the point even the poor can get some decent medical treatment. Any gaps can be made by non-profits, religious organizations and the like (similar to planned parenthood). Not perfect, but makes healthcare abundant and cheap.
Or we could just offer free healthcare without relying on unfettered capitalism to "work".
>unnecessary work
With capitalism as the driving force, anything unprofitable becomes unnecessary. Probably goes without saying, but focusing on profitability likely won't drive the best healthcare outcomes.
I'm not sure we want to encourage people to go through loan terms while possibly fearing for their life, especially when the people advising them on their health options are associated with those offering the loan.
"We need to operate as soon as possible, you're at risk until we resolve this. Oh, here's the loan information if you choose to get a loan through the hospital. The terms aren't as favorable as some others might offer, so feel free to take your time and shop around. Oh, but don't forget that your time is limited. Let me know when you've secured funding and we'll schedule the operation."
They didn't say they did, they said we're closer to having a legitimate discussion.
But to answer your question, if it's better, we might want it nationwide for similar reasons we have a national minimum wage and national child labor laws. For some things making sure there's a lower bound that everyone can rely on is a large part of the benefit, so inconsistent rules across the nation don't allow for a large portion of the benefit to be realized.
Whether this is one of those cases is something we'll hopefully get some more data on.
I'm pretty sure there's actually no constituency for outlawing the practice of medicine.
Or maybe you're actually the misanthrope that I sometimes pretend to be?