Rational Arguments

A reader responds:

In response to directing some to your article on USA/CAN angle, I was referred to this article from late August:

Canadians visit U.S. to get care

Have you seen this?

Here’s my take.  What you are seeing is a system that spends far less than we do deciding it’s more cost-effective to send some people with specific needs (like bariatric surgery) to the US to get them met.  In other words, it’s cheaper to use scanners in the United States than buy their own. Seems smart to me.

Notice that this is specifically to reduce wait times.  Are we now demonizing them for that? Sounds like they are taking advantage of the fact that we have so much invested in technology that it’s sitting around waiting to be used.  If they choose to pay us for that, how is that bad?

Again, this is the SYSTEM in Canada compensating, not people forced to go to the US because of rationing.  I think we would applaud the ingenuity of this single-payer system to solve problems. Not to mention I fail to see how this points to the success of the insurance system in the United States.

Finally, this is a piece in an online business journal, not reproducible scientific research.  It’s just above anecdote; you know how I feel about anecdotes.

I encourage everyone to read the article.  Make your own judgement.

Another question I can’t seem to answer enough:

Tonight you had Dr Carroll on talking about health care reform. I have a question for him. I work in health care, specifically the pharmaceutical industry…. I also want to comment on the fact that insurance companies are being vilified on every talk show out there. I have worked for insurance companies and they have been for the most part very concerned with their patients well being and follow evidence based medicine when making coverage decisions. There is not an endless supply of money, something has to give…

Let me start by saying that I don’t think that the people who work for insurance companies, nor the companies themselves, are evil. Granted – SOME are, but most are not.

But let’s face facts. Health insurance companies can only make money in certain ways. That’s by covering more healthy people than the next company, and by trying not to pay claims. That’s really it. And both of those things run contrary to what we want out of a health care system. It’s not a moral judgment. It’s just that the business model runs counter to what we consider the best thing to do. I’m not running for office, so I get to be honest and say I agree with you that there is not an endless supply of money and that everything can’t be covered. But we ration is horrible ways now, and can do a much better job.  Read more…