Well surely if trump has got a free market solution it will totally work right? I am 100% willing to let the republicans show us the way, if it works, all the better, if it doesn't, then I will gleefully enjoy watching them be put up against the wall and shot.
That'd require ending the federal reserve, and then repealing the 16th amendment to the US Constitution. But here's the thing, just as democracy doesn't work in many areas of the world, due to the lack of culture (and possibly genetic reasons), a free-market / free society isn't going to magically start working in the USA.
(A) The culture of individual liberty was eroded long ago against the sand paper that is bureaucracy. Americans don't look to themselves, and their community, for solutions - they look to Government.
(B) It took millennia to develop the fundamental culture and institutions that lead to the enlightenment and founding of America. Perhaps it was a fluke? One that happens, once every 1000 years or so, across history.
So, if you're looking to Trump to fix anything - for get it.
Thus, for the sake of argument, assuming we magically had sound currency and a culture of can-do, then it has been estimated that if we begin now, that perhaps in 30 years we may begin to glean the benefits of a totally reformed educational system. Why is this important? Because it takes a long time to train children to think skeptically and to learn medicine. But, let's say we work with what we have, our broken Government School System. Okay, well, thanks to the AMA we're
short tens of thousands of general practitioners and specialists. This will require new medial schools opening. Who's going to work in them? Where is this money coming from? Their training alone, not to mention their need to practice, will take decades. It should be noted,
doctors are quitting in droves. Why? Some are old, some want the good ole money days of the Baby Boomer Boom, and many because they can't stand the bureaucracy.
See the total mess Government has made of our society? Healthcare being one aspect.
The only way to 'fix' the problem is through a free people, working together voluntarily, within the law using an agreed upon medium of exchange. But we don't have that. Which is one of the reasons I suggest that the USA is too large and we should vote to break into smaller countries. One of which could return to the founding principles and in time buy the others back
Well considering how good republicans are at defunding and making government suck so they can fulfill their self-fulfilling prophecy: you are probably correct. Considering all the other countries that have universal healthcare, that is cheaper and providing greater coverage, the problem is not government, but republicans.
Yes, healthcare in Japan is high quality, and relatively inexpensive. Yes, mostly due to the Government. But not only. I'll elaborate.
I don't doubt that thanks to the AMA, in the USA, Americans are paying too much. Japanese healthcare efficiencies and culture is not going to happen in the USA. Just as Japan doesn't have a single ghetto - ANYWHERE. Just as Japan doesn't spend as much on education, yet is miles above the US. Just as Japanese use chopsticks and say a little prayer to a flowering tree while walking to work. Just as Japanese worship many gods and are buddhist.
Some things are just different.
Americans thought that they could just bomb freedom into Iraq. It didn't work. Why? I'm fairly certain if all Iraqis were removed and replaced with all English or all Japanese - things would be different. Right? Of course. Americans think they can use the Government to get cheap healthcare. It is not going to happen without a cost that will be felt somewhere. Someone is going to pay.
It's the same in Japan - someone pays.
Let me paint a scenario: A father is a physician. Why? Because his father was a physician. And so will his son be, a physician. Does the son have a choice to do something else? No. The son will be what he is expected to be: A physician. Without going into the specifics, there are a whole shit ton of cultural norms around doing the right thing that simply do not exist in the USA. At all. Not at all. NOT AT ALL. Take the concept of individualism, flush that out of your head. Take the concept of doing things 'Your' way, flush it. Now take any ideas about multiculturalism, about different communities - these 'concepts' themselves, do not exist. Other than as talking points. You know how Americans are fretting about Trump making a list of Muslims? Well, in Japan, the entire population of Muslims is accounted for per individual, their lives, their food preferences, their bank details - a list of each and every Muslim living in Japan. Grocery bills are accounted for, their Mosques are occasionally bugged with high tech spyware, their bank accounts are fully reported to the Japanese ministry and the calls are recorded etc...
Does that sound good to you? Japan is not the USA. You cannot have the Japanese healthcare system, without becoming Japanese.
Further, Japanese are extremely health conscious. Japanese are extremely honest. Japanese probably have an IQ of 103-105. Japan produces almost all of their medicines and export much of their tech. As a producer, Japan can afford to offset their healthcare costs. In a sense, if you own a PC, laptop, an iPhone - then YOU are paying for Japanese healthcare.
Are their cheaters? Sure. Are their obese? Sure. But no where near the level of the USA.
Not even close. As in, different universes.
We are not Japanese.
What they do, we will not do.
So, let's go back to the physician who's son will become a doctor. Firstly, this probably sounds a little odd. I mean, what if he doesn't get into a medical school? What if his daughter wants to be the next doctor? Well, the son will get into medical school and his daughter will become a wife and a stay at home mother. Now, the father, as a doctor, he's running a lean operation. Say, charging a bit of rent for some parking places per month. Maybe owns a few vending machines around his small hospital. He works like a dog, day and night. Is meticulous in his work. If the cut is 2 cm by 1 cm deep, then the cost is X, if the cut is 4 cm by 0.5 cm deep, then the cost is Y. All of this, and he's BARELY able to make a living.
An American, with a high IQ (to get into medical school) would have simply never went into medicine, would have instead went into engineering or banking etc.... this man's son IS going to go into medicine. And if it means eating rice for dinner - that's what he's going to do. Like it or not.
That is never ever in a million years going to be the case in the USA.
And yet, with all of this, Japanese do consume around 4000 a year per person. The Government is beginning to cut back on the 'free' stuff as the extremely monocultureal society ages, there is no 'magic'. Someone has to pay. But for now, say a man and wife will pay about 3000 a year. An mid-upper middle class family? Now you're talking 8500 a year. The rest will come from cutting from other services (for example, Japan spends less in public education per student, compared with the USA, they also toll about every road you drive down - yeah, YOU pay for the roads in Japan, many of them anyway).
In America we spend 9000 per person per year.
So, where does this money come from? Only 50% of the public pays tax. So
that's 18,000 per tax payer. But most tax payers don't ever pay that amount of tax! Jesus, most barely make that much a year. So whatever the bill is, it's going to be higher than 18,000 per tax payer. Where does THAT money come from?
It's simple math here. Government redistributes - that's its main job (now), so, where is the money going to come from?
The only way to lower the cost is to produce more of the limited good or service. That means ending the AMA and deregulating healthcare. Exactly the opposite of what most Americans want.
