Hello Bob,   
      
   On Tue 2012-Nov-13 20:18, BOB KLAHN (1:123/140) wrote to RICHARD WEBB:   
      
      
    LL> Obama's Affordable Care Act is only marginally better than   
    LL> what we have now, and in some ways makes it worse.  High   
    LL> cost, low quality is what we will get when Obamacare is   
    LL> fully in place.  Only when this country decides to get   
    LL> serious will we have a better system - a single payer   
    LL> system that does not discriminate against anyone.   
      
   BK>  If he thinks single payer is the only answer he is looking too    
   BK> small. Every industrialized country in the world has a national    
   BK> health care system that covers everyone in the country, and  costs   
   BK> much less than the US system for care that is just as  good.   
   BK> However, only two of those countries have single payer  systems. All   
   BK> the others have systems based on private sector  insurance, with   
   BK> public coverage for those who cannot afford the  private systems.   
      
   True, this fosters competition, and still gets those who   
   would be left out when the private insurance systems cherry   
   pick.  Single payer is just too unwieldy.   
      
   As you catch up on mail bundles you'll have read my comments re a guy who used   
   to do some bench tech work for me part   
   time   
   that had to quti working for me, and somebody else as well   
   so as to retain access to the medications and treatments he   
   needs to stay alive.  Under both single payer and a combined system he'd be   
   covered, but under a system which is a mix of public and private he might   
   still find it advantageous to   
   work full time, with the government option kicking in to   
   defray costs that any employment related plan wouldn't   
   cover.   
      
   BK>  The quality is just as high, and the cost is 2/3rds to 1/2 what  we   
   BK> pay.   
      
   I"ve never really crunched the numbers or really researched   
   it, more important things to me, but that seems right on an   
   intuitive level.   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ... Everybody does better when everybody does better.   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)