Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!magnesium.club.cc.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!news.columbia.edu!cunixb.cc.columbia.edu!gld
From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Subject: Re: F<O>CUS/HEALTH: The "Big Secret"
Message-ID: <1993Apr20.184230.8231@news.columbia.edu>
Sender: usenet@news.columbia.edu (The Network News)
Nntp-Posting-Host: cunixb.cc.columbia.edu
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: PhDs In The Hall
References: <9304182100.AA08789@poly.math.cor> <1993Apr20.124746.8765@desire.wright.edu>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1993 18:42:30 GMT
Lines: 40

demon@desire.wright.edu (Not a Boomer) writes:
>harelb@math.cornell.edu writes:
>
>>     "IT IS A MATTER OF LOGIC that government-run systems are
>>     inefficient, and the fact that the highly bureaucratized private
>>     sector system in the US is vastly more inefficient is therefore
>>     irrelevant.  
>
>	Proof that the entire private sector is vastly more inefficient?

Good point, Brett.  It might merely be proof that basic health care
markets operate differently, with certain nonmarket phenomenom that
the private sector can't handle well (like armies vs. warlords). In
that respect, the effects on American society vs. Canadian/European
society might also be different.

>> 	It is, for example, of no relevance that Blue Cross
>>     of Massachusetts employs 6680 people, more than are employed in
>>     all of Canada's health programs, which insure 10 times as many
>>     people"
>
>Blue Cross is the government health insurance provider.

Good point again.  Blue Cross in the U.S. is quite convoluted compared
to the Canadian and German insurance funds, which have a minimal
organization to coordinate it.  If anything, bureaucracy now needs to
be built up in Canada to combat fraud, such as Americans crossing the
border individually to use insurance cards borrowed from friends and
relatives or using phony domestic addresses, or fraud rings stealing
them in blocks.  Our private practices are now recording insurance
account numbers, both public insurance and private insurance, which
most have never bothered to do before on assumption of an honour 
system.

gld
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare
> gld@columbia.EDU 			GO  Winnipeg Jets  GO!!!
> gld@cunixc.BITNET			Selanne + Domi ==> Stanley
