[andrekandre]

  > Corruption is not always the simple graft of the CEO and board. Corruption also comes in the form of a system where too many people make too much profit to want to make the system better.

maybe i misinterpret, but are you saying but it seems your saying some profit from govt spending is ok, but too much crosses a threshold to corruption?

if thats the case, how do we set that threshold? whats the criteria?

(i don't disagree per se, just curious on the thinking around this)

[whodidntante]

What I should have said is that the system is corrupt, not that there is corruption in the system. There will always be profit to made in the system (there has to be for it to work), and there will always be corruption to some degree in the system, but having a system that is corrupt is a different type of thing.

I believe our health system itself is corrupt. There is no one person or group of people that are causing the problem, it is the way the entire system works that is the problem.

Looking at the amount of health spend as a percent of GDP, it has gone from 5% 60 years ago, to 12% 30 years ago, to 18% today. This is clearly a trend that is unsustainable. Compare this to the EU which is more like 10%-12% of GDP (not that they do not have problems)

This increase is bad enough, but we also have a system that is worse in all the ways that count - percent of population that is covered, outcomes at every class level, and the complexity of the system.

From a societal perspective, the health system is simply out of control - it continues to grow and profit in excess of what the economy can support while at the same time provides less and less value than what is clearly possible by looking at other countries.

The answer is not to simply cut spending and fire people in a random manner

The answer is also not to simply tax and spend more.

And, no, I do not know how to fix this.

[andrekandre]

  > I believe our health system itself is corrupt. There is no one person or group of people that are causing the problem, it is the way the entire system works that is the problem.

thanks for the clarification!

  > The answer is not to simply cut spending and fire people in a random manner
  > The answer is also not to simply tax and spend more.

yea, its a difficult problem, i'm guessing one issue is the cost of medicine and also insurance?

probably with such a system that is so messed up, it will take a multi-pronged approach (and a party to campaign on it) i'd guess...