Originally Posted by
uneverno
http:///forum/post/3243584
ufff, what a tiring argument.
The US spends 17.6% of GDP for 80% coverage of 80% of our population.
France spends 11%, Germany spends 10.6% of GDP, for 100% coverage of 100% of their populations.
Their health care is, if measured by infant mortality and longevity rates (and what other metrics can be applied??), substantially better than ours.
And lest you think that Socialist Medicine is a detriment to the field, check the mostly German labels on the diagnostic machines and pharmaceuticals used here: Siemens, Bosch, Bausch and Lomb, Zeiss, Bayer, Leica, etc., ...
Who invented the X-ray? Who invented the CT-Scan? Oh yeah - Socialists...
I don't think you can point to those number and say this means better healthcare... You'd have to consider cause of death for each individual. They say being fat kills, is that the fault of healthcare or the fault of the person's eating habit. We have high murder rates, high death tolls on our highways, we have lots of people who don't take care of their bodies or follow the doctor's instruction, all that factors into those rates. and drunk drivers, gang bangers, fat slobs and stupid people who don't take their medicine, don't have anything to do with capability of our healthcare system...
I also don't like the percentage of GDP argument. I could go out and buy a 5000 dollar car and my brother could go out and buy a 60,000 dollar truck. And it would take a much larger percentage of my income per month. Does that mean I have a better means of transportation? For this argument to work, you'd have to assume equal care. Basically paying different prices for the same service. And it just isn't comparible...
while we are at it, the Nazis invented the swept wing design, where in the forefront of rocket design, nuclear technology, jet aircraft, submarines... Does that mean that the Nazi government was superior to our own?
