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Comment by squozzer | Hacker News Reader

It points to the absurdity of those who claim US healthcare is a "free market". It's a cartel whose hooks are WAY deeper in the political system than just about any other industry, including oil, agriculture, or telecom.

Don't like it? Then your choices are either go elsewhere or die.

It's tempting to advocate a UK-style system, but I'll need more proof that NHS is not a political tool to depopulate the opposition.

Yes, some of us septics/savages watch the PM Q-time and never a session goes by without someone in the opposition complaining about hospitals and clinics in their district closing...

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The problem with adopting a UK-style system in the US, is that the current UK government are trying to shift it towards a US-style system and have been for a couple of decades now.

If you guys had a sensible health care system in the first place like every other civilized country then ours wouldn't have such a bad role model to try and emulate.

The UK NHS has its own peculiarities: my (Italian) mother says they're a bunch of penny-pinchers who will not do even the smallest procedure unless it's extremely and absolutely necessary. Compared to the italian system (which is almost free -- there are very small fixed charges for each procedure, they vary at the regional level and many are exempted anyway), they are quite parsimonious.

In any case, most European systems are also universal and free or almost-free. You don't need to be an advocate for the all-free-all-the-time approach to see that US people are being ripped off.

A government-run system has the same problem. When the government is running the system, if it's terrible, you have nowhere to go. Private care most likely won't be available to you either, unless you are extremely rich.

I also have a problem with the government getting even more involved in my life.

I'm not so sure this is completely the fault of Gov'ts. Healthcare services have less that -1 (1) price elasticity (2). That is to say, regardless of the price, the demand for those services go relatively unaffected. Would this be any different without Gov't intervention? Unlikely IMHO.

With Big Tobacco, "elasticity of demand for cigarettes is quite low. The amount of cigarettes purchased will remain reasonably unchanged..." (3)

(1) http://oheschools.org/ohech2pg7a.html (2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand (3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_taxes_in_the_United_S...

"Would this be any different without Gov't intervention? "

When the government gets involved in any industry, they are allowed to play by different rules (because they make the rules) making it very difficult for private companies to compete.

The German system looks pretty good, I wonder if it could be adapted well for the US.

Interestingly, the Germans were the first to implement social insurances because they were trying to keep workers from emigrating to the US:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck#Bismarck.27s_...

Why not look at statistics rather than anecdotes? The UK system costs vastly less while producing similar or better outcomes.

Septics? You should see a doctor about that.

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