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Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

In concept I can totally get behind the idea. I lived in the Netherlands for a couple years and though I never had to go in for any serious treatment, I always heard good things from friends and neighbors there.

In reality, at least in the US today, I don't trust our government to do this right. They're already way top friendly with the medical industry and have absolutely no idea what it means to plan finances. They waste a ton of tax dollars as-is and have no answer as to why we need taxes when they can literally create trillions in new money every year.

On the medical side, my only caveat would be that I'd want a system that offers more than just modern, western medicine. Anyone that believes strongly in alternstive medicines should have their care covered as well, I'm not sure how that works in other countries that have socialized medical care today.

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> I'm not sure how that works in other countries that have socialized medical care today

Acupuncture is paid by medical insurance in Switzerland for example, just another type of medical procedure in their books. Don't know rationale behind it, wikipedia says no clear evidence for it, but I know several people including doctors who report measurable positive differences on themselves or their patients, its just not an instant cure-it-all like some want it to be.

Thanks for filling in a few blanks for me! While living in the Netherlands I had a Swiss neighbor. I always appreciated how he was expected to vote on even fairly minor changes proposed by the Swiss government. Guess I'll add this to the long list of things I appreciate about the Swiss government and culture!

Its always interesting to me when western modern medicine tries to scientifically validate alternative treatments that have been around for much longer. It's such a difficult thing to do, the two approaches are based on such drastically different approaches to health and the body that it really can be like trying to translate a book to English with a Latin dictionary.

Acupuncture is pretty cheap compared to most medical procedures, so even if it's just an unusually effective placebo, it's still probably worth the cost.

I think dismantling an existing system that is based on capitalism and is protected by the people rich enough to keep lobbying and getting kick backs will always be difficult.

It would need to be started again completely.

I dont think the US even has the concept of a public hospital does it?

Yes, the U.S. has the concept of public hospitals, but they're unevenly distributed, let's say. Parkland in Dallas, where JFK died, is one. I pay property taxes separately in suburban Dallas / Fort Worth (Tarrant County) to my city, school district, and hospital district.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_hospitals_in_th...

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