Weird Americans...

[Aurangzeb Khan]

But in fact, people who eat poorly, smoke, and never exercise cost health care systems less money in the long run than people who are very healthy, because they die earlier. A disproportionate amount of health care is consumed by old people. If you die of a heart attack at sixty, your health care provider will be thrilled, from an economic point of view.

Scott channelling the spirit of Sir Humphrey Appleby in that that smokers pay more in taxes than it costs to treat smoking-related disease. Smokers also benefit the state because they don't collect their pensions for as long as non-smokers.

[Gman Russell]

That's a great comic strip...

[Jacobus Loki]

If the US system sucks so bad, and public care is so good, why do so many Canadians (I know Canadians who do this) come to the US for procedures? Why is National Health a perennial thorny issue in British elections?
****************

Evil Idea, if Obamacare passes-
Take a small sovereign island. Build a world-class hospital. In exchange for free care to the islanders (and occasional bribe, er honorarium), island's gov't keeps hands off.

Soak wealthy people for immediate care.

Or flag a cruise ship with a small-nation flag, bribe as above. Seven-day cruises, including knee replacements, chemotherapy, etc.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Evil Idea, if Obamacare passes- Take a small sovereign island. Build a world-class hospital. In exchange for free care to the islanders (and occasional bribe, er honorarium), island's gov't keeps hands off.

Um, this would be vastly easier without the island.

Obamacare is optional. It's an additional insurance plan that would complement/compete with private ones. As far as I know, it has a minimal amount to do with hospitals. A rich person who wanted to fund their health care out of pocket could continue to do so. There would be no advantage to building your new hospital on an island as opposed to American territory, except ones that already exist like the ability to use unlicensed doctors (which, as a future member of the medical establishment, I obviously oppose with every bone in my body ).

[mbasil]

Mr Loki,

Since Canada has fewer specialty medical clinics and requires longer waiting periods for some procedures, perhaps it is reasonable to say that some Canadians may not feel that their coverage is superb, and that some might want to go the the US in order to obtain superb coverage. Indeed, for some people, America's healthcare coverage is superb. The problem lies in the fact that for some people, America's healthcare is only fair, and for others, horrible or even non-existent. Just as how some nations have great inequality in income, America has great inequality in healthcare coverage. In light of these differing health outcomes, America ranks somewhat low--37th to be exact--among developed nations, in terms of health system quality.

Rank Country

1 France
2 Italy
3 San Marino
4 Andorra
5 Malta
6 Singapore
7 Spain
8 Oman
9 Austria
10 Japan
11 Norway
12 Portugal
13 Monaco
14 Greece
15 Iceland
16 Luxembourg
17 Netherlands
18 United Kingdom
19 Ireland
20 Switzerland
21 Belgium
22 Colombia
23 Sweden
24 Cyprus
25 Germany
26 Saudi Arabia
27 United Arab Emirates
28 Israel
29 Morocco
30 Canada
31 Finland
32 Australia
33 Chile
34 Denmark
35 Dominica
36 Costa Rica
37 United States of America
38 Slovenia
39 Cuba
40 Brunei
41 New Zealand

[Jacobus Loki]

In your face, Slovenia!