I agree with most of what you say, but I take issue with the above. The NIH is not all bad. Because of the NIH we have good drugs like Taxol. I've written about this before, saying stuff like all the data should have been open sourced, so any company could manufacture Taxol. Or license Taxol to all companies who wanted to make and sell it. With a 5% royalty on it and sells of a billion dollars a year for 4 year would have generated $200 Million. In 10 $500 Million, enough to pay for the research.
how much did BMS pay for other compounds that didn't work out?
That does not matter. It was BMS's choice to pay for those, and in return BMS wrote off those costs. They were tax deductible.
These kinds of royalty payments aren't unusual if a compound is bought before it has gone through any kinds of trials.
The NCI did all the research, paying with taxpayer dollars, to get FDA approval as a drug. That is after all those trials was done, with taxpayer money.
The reason that compounds are cheap before trials is that most of them turn out not to work. Google for headlines about pharmaceutical companies buying the rights to drugs from small companies. Note how much is being paid for them. Note how many of them there are. Now, Google for drug approvals and see how many of those compounds that were licensed 8 years ago are on the market.
And again all those costs are income tax deductible. Besides drug companies spend more on marketing than on R&D. Those expenses are tax deductible too.
You repeat about companies buying pre-trial candidates however all trials for Taxol were already done by the NCI.
Sure it is, it's corporate socialism, commonly called corporate welfare but also called fascism. El Duce, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, said "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power".
if they slowly took away rights by making provisions and exceptions for certain conditions and certain groups (like, let's say, not allowing a mosque at ground zero for example) the MAJORITY of the people would be either happy, or not upset enough to revolt with it that it wouldn't cause a mass uprising.
Already dealt with, in Viet Nam. Soldiers would frag officers for bad orders. Of course it didn't start out that way. A lot of the fragging happened towards the end of the war, late '60s and early '70s. From the wiki article: "Between 1970 and 1971 alone, there were 363 cases of "assault with explosive devices" against officers in Vietnam." Yet Ike sent troops there in 1955. Specifically President Eisenhower sent Edward Lansdale, an officer in the US Air Force who also worked in the CIA, to advise the French and corrupt South Vietnamese government in 1953. But that's getting too far away from the issue. Fact is is what happened in Vietnam was a slow process, yet fragging still happened.
Those taxes do not cover the NCI's expenses. So in effect the US government gave BMS a subsidy.
It could be sold at $35 million as a down payment, with the agency expecting to recoup the investment only if the drug turns out to be viable to bring to market.
As I already stated, and you replied to that post, the $35 Million was the royalty payment, stretching over years and years. If it had only been the royalties for the year 2000, BMS would have paid less than 3.5% in royalties. 35 divided by more than 1000. But it's not just 1 year. And that would have been just profits not the revenue on the drug. BMS had the rights to Taxol for more than 10 years.
Figure out what they paid in taxes due to sales of that drug, then your argument is more convincing. They could have easily paid $400 million (or more) in taxes,
It is impossible to calculate the taxes BMS paid on Taxol. Income taxes are not done that way, they are done by subtracting all expenses from all revenue. That includes marketing and research and development on all other drugs. And guess what?... Drug companies spend more on marketing than on R&D. And not all drug research leads to anything that can be sold. So $100 million spent on research for a dud drug is tax deductible.
The rest of your post, not much though, is just as much rubbish and is addressed above.
We trust government employees to do all kinds of stuff we don't allow the general citizenry to do.
You maybe but not me.
For example, it is generally illegal to walk around visibly strapped, but cops can do it all the time.
Open carry is still allowed and legal in places. "In Pennsylvania, persons 18 years of age and older whom are not prohibited by law from owning firearms may openly carry a handgun in plain sight with no license except in vehicles*, cities of the first class** (Philadelphia) and where prohibited specifically by statute." States are also re-legalizing concealed carry, with support from advocates.
You know your government has tanks, missiles, stealth bombers and is on its way to warships with laser cannons right?
And those tanks, missiles, stealth bombers and other weapons are manned by citizens. I used to be one. While we were joking about it a number of us, including me, argued we'd frag someone giving us a bad order. While I'm no longer in the Army my nephew is in the Marines and I could see him doing it.
It's not as easy to get a nation's military to fire on its own citizens as you seem to think. Heck in the Israeli military there are even refuseniks who refuse to take part in the occupation.
I guess cops sneaking around at night and sticking things to your vehicle looks creepy, but they can already get your location history from your cell provider. If I wanted to keep my physical location info private, turning off my cell radio would be a good first step.
That's only true if the cellphone/service is in the users name. Anyone can go to Best Buy, Radio Shack, or Walmart and buy prepaid cellphones with cash and without giving a name. Heck, a person could even pay someone to buy one for them. Pick any bum off the street to do it. Or buy a bunch and hand them out keeping one for personal use.
I'm not sure about this, but I'd consider adding the amount paid directly ($35 million, as you state) to the amount collected in tax revenues from the sales of the drug as well. Not the sales taxes, or the income taxes from the jobs created, but the corporate taxes paid, as they directly relate to those sales. That's a more accurate figure of what BMS gave the government.
Those sells were world wide not just in the US, and businesses don't pay income tax on all of that. And what jobs? The jobs at the NCI? They did the research not BMS. All BMS did was research on how to lower its own costs. And manufacturing costs don't count either, as stated before in 2000 BMS made more than a billion dollars in profit. And guess who paid some of that? Taxpayers, Medicare pays for treatment too.
ask yourself what'd happen if the Federal government outlawed all private firearm ownership tomorrow and ordered immediate collection.
It doesn't have to be "all at once". Just as there is mission creep in IS/IT politicians can try use mission creep to disarm civilians too. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban may of been a starting point. Signed by President Clinton in 1994, luckily it was allowed to expire without renewal in 2004. There were efforts to not only extend it though, there were attempts to enact other firearm laws too. I was glad when the DC ban on handguns was struck down, as well as Chicago's ban.
However the USA's Founding Fathers had a serious distrust of government and meant it to answer to the citizens. That is why the Bill of Rights includes stuff such as Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and protest. And it is why the Second Amendment, the right to bare arms, is included. No matter how many other rights there are if a population is unarmed it effectively has no rights but what the government grants the public.
IMO first aid should be a required class beginning in about the 6th grade, right along with household and small business microeconomics.
You might be interested in Ariel Community Academy, a school in Chicagoland. In it students, K to 8th grade, are taught to invest. Students "in grades K-8 hone math skills and learn practical, lifelong lessons in finance by managing a $20,000 class stock portfolio."
Ebola only occurs in one part of the world unlike malaria
Except that's not true. Here's a table of known cases of ebola outbreaks published by the CDC. In 1976 there was one in England. In the US the first one was in 1989. Other countries with outbreaks not in Africa is Italy and the Philippines.
Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have found a class of drugs that could provide treatment for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever.
Is this going to be another example of government spending hundreds of Hundreds Millions of Taxpayer Dollars developing a drug only to give it away exclusively to a pharmaceutical business who can then make billions of dollars on the drug if there's an outbreak? That is exactly what the National Cancer Institute or NCI, part of the US federal government's National Institutes of Health did. The NCI spent more than $484 Million [pdf] developing and testing Taxol as a breast cancer drug. The NCI then gave Bristol-Myers Squibb, BMS, exclusive rights to its use. What did BMS pay for those rights? BMS paid $35 Million in royalty payments through 2002. BMS had those exclusive rights for more than 10 years. Guess how much BMS sold Taxol for... In 2000 BMS sold $1.6 Billion, earning between $4 and $5 Million a day.
Hydro is perfect for covering peaks because it comes up to full capacity within minutes instead of the hours required to start up with coal/oil or nuclear, so it is very likely that not all of those hydro units are not running all of the time.
Natural gas also is good for peak generation, for the same reason, electrical generation in natural gas power plants can be quickly ramped up if not already at full production.
CO2 is not dangerous at all if breathed in so I'm not sure what you're implying there.
It is dangerous in high enough concentations. I believe that the OSHA limit for 8-hr average exposure is 5,000 ppm and it is considered acutely toxic at levels above 4% or so.
Put that way everything is dangerous in high enough concentrations. Methane will cause asphyxiation in lower concentrations than CO2 will. For that matter carbon monoxide, CO, is more dangerous than carbon dioxide, ask NASCAR drivers.
The dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity, generating 94.7 TWh in 2008 and 91.6 TWh in 2009, while the annual generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was 80.8 TWh in 2008 and 79.4 TWh in 2009
What struck me in TFA was the scale of the project. 3.6 MW will provide 4% of the whole country's electricity needs.
Except it doesn't say that. TFA says that it supplies "more than 4% of the country's entire supply" not it's needs. Currently only "one in 14 homes have access to electricity". Demand will rise to drive electrical needs higher.
To put it into perspective, the largest power plant in the world, Itaipu dam, has a 14000 MW capacity.
Again wrong. Three Gorges Dam in China is the "world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind." The "electric generating capacity of the dam will eventually reach 22.5 GW."
I have been advocating this position since I first learned about the exploding lakes from the science channel in 8th grade! I am very glad someone finally got around to doing it. If only there was something they could do to stop the carbon dioxide eruptions.
Worse than the CO2 is the methane. As a greenhouse gas it is more than 20 tymes as potent as carbon dioxide, and it no less dangerous if breathed in.
Requiring Internet Explorer users to install Chrome Frame for its WebGL and JavaScript engine is just as much a logistical barrier as requiring them to install Silverlight
More of a barrier.
Silverlight can be installed through Microsoft Update. Silverlight powers Netflix. The Windows 9 Beta is only a month away.
Silverlight can only be installed through MS Update on Windows. It doesn't work well for Macs or any of the Unices. It also requires relatively new browser versions according to the wiki article on Silverlight.
A really efficient mixed system would be a socialist political system
How wrong can a person be? Socialism is an economic system of state ownership of industry and the political system advocating such an economic system.
Privatization of common goods such as water and health care is a recipe for disaster.
Partially wrong, yes water is a common good but health care and medicine are not. They may be good for the public but they are not common goods. As for privatized medicine being a disaster? HAHA! Take one example,
LASIK Surgery. About 10 years ago, in 1999 when this surgery started, LASIK surgery on 1 eye cost about $10,000 but today a good surgeon will perform it for $2000. Prices of $1000 or less can be found too, but I wouldn't trust one without some good and credible references first.
What you have in the US is not a mixed system, it is a corrupted capitalist system.
No, what we have in the US is a mixed system, it's corrupted but it's also mixed. I know, I'm in that system. Because I was disabled in an accident I now collect Social Security Income, a government insurance program. When I worked I had no choice but to pay into Social Security, employers deduct it then give the government the money. Because I am disabled my health insurance is Medicare, another government insurance program. And like Social Security I had no choice but to pay into it, like SS employers deduct money from employees' pay and gives it to the government. Even now I pay into Medicare, again the government deducts some of my SSI as a premium for Medicare.
And don't try to tell me that that is not socialized medicine. If it were capitalist then it would be in private hands.
Now for when I had the accident which caused my disability. At the tyme I was a college student and I was riding my bike after class when I was hit by someone who should not have been driving. After the accident I was medivaced by helicopter to the hospital. After I came out of the coma I was in I was transferred to a rehab house, I survived a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. There I went through several weeks of therapy before I was allowed to move into my mother's house. While living with her I went through more therapy. Altogether my medical bills came to more than $120,000. As a student and not working I didn't have insurance and I was not wealthy, but I got all that medical care anyway.
So even those who can not afford medical care still get it in the US. Either government pays or the costs are passed on to those who can afford it or to insurance. Most Americans aren't willing to have someone die just because the person can't pay for medical care. For proof look at 2 examples, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, started in 1962 by the actor and comedian Danny Thomas. Thinking "no child should die in the dawn of life" he started the hospital which treats children from around the world without asking parents to pay. Then the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Shriners for short, operates the Shriners Hos
Slashdot Mirror
No, You missed my point. That I do not want this Ebola treatment, to like Taxol, to become more corporate welfare, a hand out of taxpayer money.
Falcon
I agree with most of what you say, but I take issue with the above. The NIH is not all bad. Because of the NIH we have good drugs like Taxol. I've written about this before, saying stuff like all the data should have been open sourced, so any company could manufacture Taxol. Or license Taxol to all companies who wanted to make and sell it. With a 5% royalty on it and sells of a billion dollars a year for 4 year would have generated $200 Million. In 10 $500 Million, enough to pay for the research.
Falcon
At what point was the drug bought,
!988-89 after all the testing needed was done.
how much did BMS pay for other compounds that didn't work out?
That does not matter. It was BMS's choice to pay for those, and in return BMS wrote off those costs. They were tax deductible.
These kinds of royalty payments aren't unusual if a compound is bought before it has gone through any kinds of trials.
The NCI did all the research, paying with taxpayer dollars, to get FDA approval as a drug. That is after all those trials was done, with taxpayer money.
The reason that compounds are cheap before trials is that most of them turn out not to work. Google for headlines about pharmaceutical companies buying the rights to drugs from small companies. Note how much is being paid for them. Note how many of them there are. Now, Google for drug approvals and see how many of those compounds that were licensed 8 years ago are on the market.
And again all those costs are income tax deductible. Besides drug companies spend more on marketing than on R&D. Those expenses are tax deductible too.
You repeat about companies buying pre-trial candidates however all trials for Taxol were already done by the NCI.
Falcon
Sure it is, it's corporate socialism, commonly called corporate welfare but also called fascism. El Duce, Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, said "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power".
Falcon
if they slowly took away rights by making provisions and exceptions for certain conditions and certain groups (like, let's say, not allowing a mosque at ground zero for example) the MAJORITY of the people would be either happy, or not upset enough to revolt with it that it wouldn't cause a mass uprising.
Already dealt with, in Viet Nam. Soldiers would frag officers for bad orders. Of course it didn't start out that way. A lot of the fragging happened towards the end of the war, late '60s and early '70s. From the wiki article: "Between 1970 and 1971 alone, there were 363 cases of "assault with explosive devices" against officers in Vietnam." Yet Ike sent troops there in 1955. Specifically President Eisenhower sent Edward Lansdale, an officer in the US Air Force who also worked in the CIA, to advise the French and corrupt South Vietnamese government in 1953. But that's getting too far away from the issue. Fact is is what happened in Vietnam was a slow process, yet fragging still happened.
Falcon
US.
Those taxes do not cover the NCI's expenses. So in effect the US government gave BMS a subsidy.
It could be sold at $35 million as a down payment, with the agency expecting to recoup the investment only if the drug turns out to be viable to bring to market.
As I already stated, and you replied to that post, the $35 Million was the royalty payment, stretching over years and years. If it had only been the royalties for the year 2000, BMS would have paid less than 3.5% in royalties. 35 divided by more than 1000. But it's not just 1 year. And that would have been just profits not the revenue on the drug. BMS had the rights to Taxol for more than 10 years.
Figure out what they paid in taxes due to sales of that drug, then your argument is more convincing. They could have easily paid $400 million (or more) in taxes,
It is impossible to calculate the taxes BMS paid on Taxol. Income taxes are not done that way, they are done by subtracting all expenses from all revenue. That includes marketing and research and development on all other drugs. And guess what?... Drug companies spend more on marketing than on R&D. And not all drug research leads to anything that can be sold. So $100 million spent on research for a dud drug is tax deductible.
The rest of your post, not much though, is just as much rubbish and is addressed above.
Falcon
We trust government employees to do all kinds of stuff we don't allow the general citizenry to do.
You maybe but not me.
For example, it is generally illegal to walk around visibly strapped, but cops can do it all the time.
Open carry is still allowed and legal in places. "In Pennsylvania, persons 18 years of age and older whom are not prohibited by law from owning firearms may openly carry a handgun in plain sight with no license except in vehicles*, cities of the first class** (Philadelphia) and where prohibited specifically by statute." States are also re-legalizing concealed carry, with support from advocates.
Falcon
You know your government has tanks, missiles, stealth bombers and is on its way to warships with laser cannons right?
And those tanks, missiles, stealth bombers and other weapons are manned by citizens. I used to be one. While we were joking about it a number of us, including me, argued we'd frag someone giving us a bad order. While I'm no longer in the Army my nephew is in the Marines and I could see him doing it.
Heck even the Chinese had difficulty having it's army fire on civilians during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Commanders for the local army units refused to order soldiers to fire on civilians. Protesters were even cheered on by the police. Communist party bosses were scared the local military units were going to revolt so Beijing called in units from other parts of China. Even then there were reports of sporadic gunfire and interfactional fighting among PLA units.
It's not as easy to get a nation's military to fire on its own citizens as you seem to think. Heck in the Israeli military there are even refuseniks who refuse to take part in the occupation.
Falcon
I guess cops sneaking around at night and sticking things to your vehicle looks creepy, but they can already get your location history from your cell provider. If I wanted to keep my physical location info private, turning off my cell radio would be a good first step.
That's only true if the cellphone/service is in the users name. Anyone can go to Best Buy, Radio Shack, or Walmart and buy prepaid cellphones with cash and without giving a name. Heck, a person could even pay someone to buy one for them. Pick any bum off the street to do it. Or buy a bunch and hand them out keeping one for personal use.
Falcon
I'm not sure about this, but I'd consider adding the amount paid directly ($35 million, as you state) to the amount collected in tax revenues from the sales of the drug as well. Not the sales taxes, or the income taxes from the jobs created, but the corporate taxes paid, as they directly relate to those sales. That's a more accurate figure of what BMS gave the government.
Those sells were world wide not just in the US, and businesses don't pay income tax on all of that. And what jobs? The jobs at the NCI? They did the research not BMS. All BMS did was research on how to lower its own costs. And manufacturing costs don't count either, as stated before in 2000 BMS made more than a billion dollars in profit. And guess who paid some of that? Taxpayers, Medicare pays for treatment too.
Falcon
attach the GPS unit to another vehicle. A bus? Your neighbor's car?
Provided a GPS unit is found that's a great idea. Then again who's going to spend tyme scanning for one?
Perhaps a drive-through car wash can be set up for that ;-) Clean the car of dirt and more dirt.
Falcon
ask yourself what'd happen if the Federal government outlawed all private firearm ownership tomorrow and ordered immediate collection.
It doesn't have to be "all at once". Just as there is mission creep in IS/IT politicians can try use mission creep to disarm civilians too. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban may of been a starting point. Signed by President Clinton in 1994, luckily it was allowed to expire without renewal in 2004. There were efforts to not only extend it though, there were attempts to enact other firearm laws too. I was glad when the DC ban on handguns was struck down, as well as Chicago's ban.
Falcon
However the USA's Founding Fathers had a serious distrust of government and meant it to answer to the citizens. That is why the Bill of Rights includes stuff such as Freedom of Speech, Assembly, and protest. And it is why the Second Amendment, the right to bare arms, is included. No matter how many other rights there are if a population is unarmed it effectively has no rights but what the government grants the public.
Falcon
One of these would solve the problem I suspect-ECM against the govt tracking.
http://www.jammer-store.com/gps-blockers-jammers.html
But are jammers legal? Fox News has the article GPS Jammers Illegal, Dangerous, and Very Easy to Buy but in Are GPS Signal Jammers Legal? Bright Hub says the FCC has "only taken action against one individual who has sold GPS jamming devices."
For those who want a GPS jammer, and have the skills to build one, Phrack explains how.
Falcon
IMO first aid should be a required class beginning in about the 6th grade, right along with household and small business microeconomics.
You might be interested in Ariel Community Academy, a school in Chicagoland. In it students, K to 8th grade, are taught to invest. Students "in grades K-8 hone math skills and learn practical, lifelong lessons in finance by managing a $20,000 class stock portfolio."
Falcon
Ebola only occurs in one part of the world unlike malaria
Except that's not true. Here's a table of known cases of ebola outbreaks published by the CDC. In 1976 there was one in England. In the US the first one was in 1989. Other countries with outbreaks not in Africa is Italy and the Philippines.
Falcon
Outbreak rentals just dropped to zero
That's alright, I own the tape and DVD. I buy, I don't rent.
Falcon
Researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases have found a class of drugs that could provide treatment for Ebola and Marburg hemorrhagic fever.
Is this going to be another example of government spending hundreds of Hundreds Millions of Taxpayer Dollars developing a drug only to give it away exclusively to a pharmaceutical business who can then make billions of dollars on the drug if there's an outbreak? That is exactly what the National Cancer Institute or NCI, part of the US federal government's National Institutes of Health did. The NCI spent more than $484 Million [pdf] developing and testing Taxol as a breast cancer drug. The NCI then gave Bristol-Myers Squibb, BMS, exclusive rights to its use. What did BMS pay for those rights? BMS paid $35 Million in royalty payments through 2002. BMS had those exclusive rights for more than 10 years. Guess how much BMS sold Taxol for... In 2000 BMS sold $1.6 Billion, earning between $4 and $5 Million a day.
Falcon
Hydro is perfect for covering peaks because it comes up to full capacity within minutes instead of the hours required to start up with coal/oil or nuclear, so it is very likely that not all of those hydro units are not running all of the time.
Natural gas also is good for peak generation, for the same reason, electrical generation in natural gas power plants can be quickly ramped up if not already at full production.
Falcon
CO2 is not dangerous at all if breathed in so I'm not sure what you're implying there.
It is dangerous in high enough concentations. I believe that the OSHA limit for 8-hr average exposure is 5,000 ppm and it is considered acutely toxic at levels above 4% or so.
Put that way everything is dangerous in high enough concentrations. Methane will cause asphyxiation in lower concentrations than CO2 will. For that matter carbon monoxide, CO, is more dangerous than carbon dioxide, ask NASCAR drivers.
Falcon
Actually, isn't the largest power station in the world the three gorges dam?
Evidently not.
The dam is the largest operating hydroelectric facility in terms of annual generating capacity, generating 94.7 TWh in 2008 and 91.6 TWh in 2009, while the annual generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam was 80.8 TWh in 2008 and 79.4 TWh in 2009
Evidently not:
"The 11,000 MW dam would be third largest in the world, after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay."
Here's another source: The Top 100 - Part I The World's Largest Power Plants.
Falcon
What struck me in TFA was the scale of the project. 3.6 MW will provide 4% of the whole country's electricity needs.
Except it doesn't say that. TFA says that it supplies "more than 4% of the country's entire supply" not it's needs. Currently only "one in 14 homes have access to electricity". Demand will rise to drive electrical needs higher.
To put it into perspective, the largest power plant in the world, Itaipu dam, has a 14000 MW capacity.
Again wrong. Three Gorges Dam in China is the "world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind." The "electric generating capacity of the dam will eventually reach 22.5 GW."
Falcon
I have been advocating this position since I first learned about the exploding lakes from the science channel in 8th grade! I am very glad someone finally got around to doing it. If only there was something they could do to stop the carbon dioxide eruptions.
Worse than the CO2 is the methane. As a greenhouse gas it is more than 20 tymes as potent as carbon dioxide, and it no less dangerous if breathed in.
Falcon
Requiring Internet Explorer users to install Chrome Frame for its WebGL and JavaScript engine is just as much a logistical barrier as requiring them to install Silverlight
More of a barrier.
Silverlight can be installed through Microsoft Update. Silverlight powers Netflix. The Windows 9 Beta is only a month away.
Silverlight can only be installed through MS Update on Windows. It doesn't work well for Macs or any of the Unices. It also requires relatively new browser versions according to the wiki article on Silverlight.
Falcon
A really efficient mixed system would be a socialist political system
How wrong can a person be? Socialism is an economic system of state ownership of industry and the political system advocating such an economic system.
Privatization of common goods such as water and health care is a recipe for disaster.
Partially wrong, yes water is a common good but health care and medicine are not. They may be good for the public but they are not common goods. As for privatized medicine being a disaster? HAHA! Take one example, LASIK Surgery. About 10 years ago, in 1999 when this surgery started, LASIK surgery on 1 eye cost about $10,000 but today a good surgeon will perform it for $2000. Prices of $1000 or less can be found too, but I wouldn't trust one without some good and credible references first.
What you have in the US is not a mixed system, it is a corrupted capitalist system.
No, what we have in the US is a mixed system, it's corrupted but it's also mixed. I know, I'm in that system. Because I was disabled in an accident I now collect Social Security Income, a government insurance program. When I worked I had no choice but to pay into Social Security, employers deduct it then give the government the money. Because I am disabled my health insurance is Medicare, another government insurance program. And like Social Security I had no choice but to pay into it, like SS employers deduct money from employees' pay and gives it to the government. Even now I pay into Medicare, again the government deducts some of my SSI as a premium for Medicare.
And don't try to tell me that that is not socialized medicine. If it were capitalist then it would be in private hands.
Now for when I had the accident which caused my disability. At the tyme I was a college student and I was riding my bike after class when I was hit by someone who should not have been driving. After the accident I was medivaced by helicopter to the hospital. After I came out of the coma I was in I was transferred to a rehab house, I survived a TBI, Traumatic Brain Injury. There I went through several weeks of therapy before I was allowed to move into my mother's house. While living with her I went through more therapy. Altogether my medical bills came to more than $120,000. As a student and not working I didn't have insurance and I was not wealthy, but I got all that medical care anyway.
So even those who can not afford medical care still get it in the US. Either government pays or the costs are passed on to those who can afford it or to insurance. Most Americans aren't willing to have someone die just because the person can't pay for medical care. For proof look at 2 examples, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, started in 1962 by the actor and comedian Danny Thomas. Thinking "no child should die in the dawn of life" he started the hospital which treats children from around the world without asking parents to pay. Then the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Shriners for short, operates the Shriners Hos