Liberal Vision

USA’s “private” health care

It’s perhaps beneficial to my own health that I’ve been distracted enough to miss out on much of the frenzied debate on the US and UK health systems (both of which are flawed).

However, one point I’ve felt the need to contribute is as follows:

Almost 7 per cent of GDP in the USA is spent on healthcare by government.

Thus, the idea that the US system is a model of private provision is incorrect.

For entirely different reasons I ended up just now on a website entitled USASpending.gov.  On the homepage thereof is a list of the top 5 recipients of government spending. As follows:

1. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CARE SERVICES
2. NEW YORK STATE DEPT OF HEALTH
3. TEXAS HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
4. PENNSYLVANIA DEPT OF PUBLIC WELFARE
5. LOUISIANA DEPT OF HEALTH & HOSPITALS

Bold added.

The total received by the four health groups alone is around $55,000,000,000.

Just thought I’d share.

The state applauds itself for solving 0.3% of a problem

Vicki Chapman, of the Human Tissues Authority (a taxpayer-funded health quango), is falling over herself to proclaim the dazzling success of altruistic live organ donation.

Apparently, a total of 25 brave people have offered to donate a spare kidney to a stranger. The number of volunteers in year one was ten. In year two, it was fifteen. Ms. Chapham “did not expect to see the number rise so significantly after just one year”. (From practically zilch, to a little bit more)

These twenty-five donations will reduce the number of people in the UK in need of a kidney from 7,000 to 6,975.

Hardly” job done”, is it?

Assuming that there isn’t about to be a 3000 % nationwide rise in altruism, does anyone have a credible plan to properly tackle this problem?

Clue: if it’s legal to give something away, it should be legal to sell it.