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Near-universal Mexican Healthcare Coverage Results From Science-informed Changes
ananyo writes about improvement to Mexico's healthcare system. From the article: "A revamp of Mexico's beleaguered health-care system is proving to be a runaway success and offers a model for other nations seeking to reform their own systems, according to a review published this week in The Lancet (abstract). The key to the scheme's success is the way in which it has modified its reforms in response to scientific assessments of their effectiveness, the authors say. Launched in a law in 2003, the Mexican scheme was designed to sort out widespread inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the country's health-care system. Some 50 million Mexicans — nearly half the country's population — who previously were not covered by health insurance are now enrolled, leading the scheme's architects to claim that the country has near-universal health-care coverage. As well as the increased coverage, the scheme has seen the number of conditions treated under Mexican public health insurance nearly quintuple. Admittedly, the former health minister Julio Frenk, now dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, is a co-author on the paper."
Translation: "We did some things we thought would work, and then later we stopped doing the things that weren't working and did more of the things that were."
In an ideal world, governments behaving sensibly wouldn't make headlines.
Sounds like the problems the opponents to universal health care in the States are always worried about.
The problem of making health care cheaper so there isn't so much profit in it?
told her to take her mother, who they suspected had liver cancer, for tests in the neighboring state of Morelos.
Given the choice of travelling for a few hours to have (free) tests, or the American alternative of selling your house to pay for them, I wonder which is the worst?
Hey, you forgot to call; it "Obamacare". Don't worry, I'm sure that will be in half the posts anyway.
Would people really feel "forced" if there was a tax financed single payer system financed by taxes? Does someone feel "forced" to pay for police and other services with taxes? Would anyone rather have a private company to call in case of fire, than pay tax money for that service? Am I making a weird extrapolation between police and healthcare?
I don't know why people don't get it. The "free market" people out there love to say "government shouldn't mess with it" and usually, I agree except when government has no choice.
Any time there is an unlimited supply, the government needs to help. Such cases include matters like "copyright" and "patent protection." The supply is unlimited and therefore must be enforced by government to use other means to get people to pay for something with an unlimited supply.
Any time there is an unlimited demandm the government needs to help. Such cases include matters like healthcare, water and electrical service. People need what they need and it has little to do with market conditions. Often is is "use or die." Government needs to ensure that needs of the people are met before suppliers are allowed to exploit the need to gain unlimited profits.
It's interesting and amusing to me that many such free market proponents are great with government enforced or assisted items like copyright but not with health and power regulation. "Only when it serves their interests." So it's selfish humanity as usual... and in the end, that's why we have law in the first place -- to help us to act against our own nature.
Does someone feel "forced" to pay for police and other services with taxes?
Yes, many libertarians.
Would anyone rather have a private company to call in case of fire, than pay tax money for that service?
Yes, many libertarians.
Am I making a weird extrapolation between police and healthcare?
Yes, many people don't see the connection between public safety and public health. And most of them are libertarians.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
... nothing. President Lawnchair signed the massive bailout for the health insurance companies (which was conveniently disguised as "health care reform") which ultimately left us with the same broken system, but with people now forced to buy into it. We still have no standard of care, and nothing that actually resembled universal coverage.
And now to further accentuate how ridiculous that is, the Mexican government just beat us to health care reform as well. A significant portion of their country is embattled in violent conflict in the drug war, yet they can pass health care reform. Up here, we can't pass it because of a collection of idiots who are afraid of (their own lack of understanding of) "socialism".
Yeah, go ahead. Mod me down. I can take it. At least I said my piece.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Seriously? You're seriously asking that question?
In the civilised world, we view people who refuse to help the sick and injured as evil scum. In your country you may be happy with people dying, untreated, on the streets. YMMV.
I suppose you consider fertility treatments to be frivolous.
I hate to say this, but they ARE frivolous, at least when compared to other things such as cancer treatment.
Not to mention, you COULD just adopt... or do as you did, and pay for private care.
-- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
I think we do have a right to healthcare, as well as food and housing, at least as long as the country can afford it. The wealthy already get to have luxuries because they're rich, why do they also get to have the necessities, like shelter, healthcare and food as well?
I also think we should cut our military budget by at least 90% before we start saying we can't afford to provide everyone with healthcare.
-- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
There are death panels in both socialized medicine and private medicine with health insurance, the question is whether they're manned by government-employed medical professionals on a salary, or corporate-employed statisticians with a vested interest in your death.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Medicare and SS spend more money than they take in, so to finance these pyramid schemes the gov't sells bonds.
SS takes in more than they make, you fucking moron. Which is where as these IOUs come from...the rest of the government borrows from them.
Jesus Christ on pogo stick, it's completely astonishing how many people are complete and total idiots.
Here, let me explain to you: You know how you don't have a job because you're too goddamn stupid to work a cash register? (And I also think it's unfair they fired you! Does it really matter if customers pay you or you pay them? Isn't it enough that money moves?) You know how you have to keep borrowing from your parents to pay off your credit cards? You know how they don't charge you interest?
They are, this analogy, social security, and you are the rest of the budget. And you are standing there arguing that they are borrowing too much and spending too much and will collapse, because look at all those IOUs they have from you! (IOUs are bad, right? So having IOUs must be bad, right?)
Hey, dumbass, it's you who have the problem, they're the people fucking bailing you out. The government has borrowed 2.7 trillion dollars from social security.
You get rid of social security, (even if we _don't_ pay it back, aka, we steal the 2.7 trillion dollars we've already borrowed, aka we default on US government securities), and in the future the rest of the budget is in a lot more trouble and has to borrow more, resulting in more interest. We borrowed $805 billion in 2011, so basically you're saying 'I wish we had to pay interest on an extra $805 billion each year!'.
And having stole 2.7 trillion dollars from our security holders (Even if said holders were ourselves), I can only imagine at what interest rate we'd have to offer on those added bonds. And our existing ones.
TL;DR: Conservatives think a place the government can, and has, borrowed money without interest (Instead of issuing bonds which do cost interest), is somehow causing the budget issues, and the fact that it has so much money is obvious proof that it is bankrupt.
(Medicare, OTOH, hovers on the line of taking in too much and too little, but is not separated out like social security and doesn't have a trust fund, so extra money just disappears into the general budget, and comes out another year, so it's harder to see that it's revenue neutral in general. People gasp and point out that it costs X billion dollars one year, and don't notice it made X billion dollars another. Right now, in a recession, yes, it's costing us.)
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
The US fails, because it has a HUGE middle man bureaucracy that skims 20% off the top called Insurance. IF I got my "benefits" as salary, I could be much more efficient in my health care dollars than Insurance.
Case in point, I can get my meds via Insurance for $25 (co-pay) or I can go to Walmart and get them for $12 (which I do). I have insurance, but it is more expensive to use than paying cash. That is not efficient.
My daughter just spent 4 hours in Emergency, the Insurance paid (after discounts) 16,000. Four grand per hour?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.