| John Chiara wrote on Wed, 05 August 2009 14:36 |
I just had a very well respected musician friend recommend Michael Moore's movie..Sicko..and got me wondering. In what shape are the economies of the countries of Europe and also Canada..where there is Gov't supplied Health Care?
Thanks,
John
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Healthcare is only one factor impacting a countries economy, and countries need to be looked at based on their specific situation.
Regarding Norway and Canada both are oil exporters. >20% of Norway's economy and Canada is our largest supplier of imported oil.
As I have said several times before, most foreign governments mandate reduced prices for the same drugs that we pay full price for here. We are effectively subsidizing new drug development for the rest of the world with our high prices. We are a wealthy nation and generous but to be fair about this health care cost, it seems this playing field needs to be leveled. It is probably illegal. It sounds a lot like dumping, a trade rule against selling products at lower prices in export markets. In this case the low prices aren't seen as damaging to companies in the export market, and in fact openly managed by foreign governments. In all fairness there should be one world price for drugs. If the rest of the world paid their fair share, our price would go down.
This is just one aspect of healthcare cost, and government control of drug prices is probably irresistible to our new crop of Czars. Of course there will be unintended consequences from tipping over that apple cart. IMO drug companies have already cut back on research and development.
I don't personally find Michael Moore a credible reporter on social issues. I haven't watched any of his films but IIRC he presented Cuba in that movie as an attractive model for healthcare. Opinions vary.
I think the party is just about over for our new administration. All the spending already done in recent months, and even the government budget office's estimate for the cost for what he wants to do, will break the back of American taxpayers.
The Robin Hood tax program, of "We won't raise your taxes. We'll take it from the wealthy" does not compute. The wealthy don't have enough money even if they take it all.
Despite spending like drunk sailors since taking office, tax receipts are way down because of the economic contraction. Nobody expects the economy to recover to housing bubble levels anytime soon. In fairness to drunk sailors, they usually only spend the money in their pockets. We are spending money we don't have.
I am absolutely in favor of reforming healthcare but not by government takeover. We don't need healthcare to be another Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, GM, Chrysler, etc. We need to break the insidious cycle of single payer insurance isolating the health care consumer from making economic decisions which would drive competition. We need to reform the drug company marketing that is designed to thwart insurance company attempts to manage costs, and hospitals and care providers are also in bed with, or doing what they have to do to work with these insurance and drug companies.
I am of the opinion that the government healthcare proposal is exactly the wrong direction to take, and will destroy a little more of makes this country great. Like they have weakened the auto industry by "helping" it. This cash for clunkers program demonstrates how bizarre and flawed our governments approach to manipulate the economy is.
The senate is expected to add another $2B to the program before leaving town this week. I guess they hope to get a better reception from voters in their districts who are getting angry about the spending. Of course the folks who line up to get "free money" from taxpayers to buy new cars are probably happy.
Don't confuse the short term bump to economic numbers (GDP) that this will trigger with actual economic expansion. This one time incentive is mainly pulling future economic activity into the present. The unintended consequence of this is a sales slow down when the program ends, and training consumers to not buy cars until the next multi-thousand dollar deal. A vicious cycle they were already in with ever expanding rebates.
I am optimistic that American voters will eventually catch on and throw a bunch of the bums out in 2010, more in 2012. I wish the Libertarian party had a credible chance. The republicans started this spending orgy and the dems just ramped it up to obscene levels. We've been through harder times before, but we don't need to copy Europe. If anything they have been moving more toward the American model to deal with their issues. Not being allowed to fire people, means business is doubly reluctant to hire, But I don't want to rant about short comings in socialism, we need to embrace what got us to this success.
Don't be seduced by politicians saying we need change... thinking their idea of change is remotely the same as ours. Serious change needs to come from thoughtful deliberation and negotiation with all concerned. Not bills rammed through the system that our legislators don't even read, written by lobbyists.
JR
PS: We have plenty of Canadian citizens posting here so they could comment about their personal experience with nationalized health care. I suspect personal experiences will vary depending on the nature of the individual's health and age. Most reports I read are promoting one agenda or the other so probably not typical.
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Topic: European country Economies? (Read 19948 times)