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Gary O'Neill's avatar

Your first paragraph is a great distillation of the debate, and the post keeps climbing from there. I would add that healthcare is expensive because the healthcare workforce makes up about 14% of the total US workforce and the average wages for most occupations is significantly higher than the average. But we also gain something other systems don’t have, and that is responsiveness in many parts of the system (I know - there are horror stories aplenty, but there are also scores of stories where rapid actions through the system saved lives).'We typically are not kept waiting for critical procedures like one hears about in Canada and the UK. There is no question that the system needs improvement, but that can happen only if we are willing to allow new ideas to be tried rather than stifled by massive bureaucracy in the public and private sectors.

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Edwin Leap's avatar

Great piece Robert. I've always been amazed when people felt that they'd get better care in Cuba. The care here is complicated, and sometimes expensive, but remarkable.

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