[panic]

This anti-government ideology is self-reinforcing. We underfund government programs, then hold them up as examples: "Look, government funding doesn't work. I told you so!"

In reality, the people doing the actual work of health care wouldn't change -- the money to pay them would just come from a different place. Do you really think the folks at insurance companies have more custodianship and duty than people working in the public sector?

[ericd]

I agree about the frequent use of the tactic of making government dysfunctional to persuade people that they don't want to pay the taxes necessary to expand government services, but that tactic probably isn't going away. You can thank people like Grover Norquist who really, really want taxes lowered.

Also, something to keep in mind with fully socialized medicine is it would almost certainly reduce doctor pay, because the government would have almost all the leverage in pricing. I know some doctors in France well, they're extremely poorly paid compared to doctors in the same practice in the US.

And if you squeeze doctor salaries too much, what fraction of would-be doctors are going to decide that they don't want to go through the hassle and expense of medical school?

[programLyrique]

But France is not a country where medicine is the most "socialized". For instance, GPs are usually private doctors in France. Then the universal health insurance refunds 70% of the price usually (but it can be less, because doctors can choose their price - it's called "sector", and only ). Then, most French people have a complementary private insurance called "mutuelle" from their job that pays the remaining 30%. Only long-term illnesses such as cancer are fully reimbursed by the national health insurance.

And yes, even the least paid doctors in France earn much more than the median French salary. Also in France, medical school is not expensive ("socialized" education). It just takes time...

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

[ericd]

Interesting, thanks for the additional info!

[pyrale]

> I know some doctors in France well, they're extremely poorly paid compared to doctors in the same practice in the US.

French doctors still in the top 5% of earners in France, even higher when it comes to revenue from work. And the schools have to reject like 80% of the students at the end of first year.

[DanBC]

A point about under funding: the US government ( not including private insurance) pays more for health care than the UK government.

[travmatt]

It's not particularly surprising that a country several times larger than another pays more money for health care. Are you saying the per capita cost is higher?

[tchaffee]

Per capita medical costs in the US are double that of most Western countries. Both private and public.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/health-costs-how-the-us-...

[travmatt]

This would seem a good statistic to cite when trying to show the comparative inefficiency of the American system.

[jedmeyers]

> We underfund government programs

Does Canada under-funds it's health program?