Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site mhuxr.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mfs From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Seat-belt laws Message-ID: <244@mhuxr.UUCP> Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 12:15:12 EST Article-I.D.: mhuxr.244 Posted: Tue Feb 12 12:15:12 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 03:55:16 EST References: <321@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> <630@unmvax.UUCP> <599@tty3b.UUCP> <659@unmvax.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill Lines: 44 > > >From: cliff@unmvax.UUCP > > > > > >Want to reduce medical costs for everybody? > > >Get rid of medicare and deregulate the medical industry. > > > > Sure, it's worked so well, let's have more! Medicine in the U.S. is > > less regulated than in just about any other industrialized western > > country. The result is predictable: two tiers of service, one for > > those who can pay and another for those who can't; > > > > Mike Kelly > > Whether it is "less regulated" than others or not, there is still so much > regulation that it is not surprising that the costs are enormous. It is > not uncommon to hear of people who want to build hospitals that are not > allowed, because they can't show proof that they are needed. I can not > decide that I need a particular drug, write a prescription and go purchase > it. As long as the number of hospitals is kept down and the number of > people allowed to perform the most rudimentary medicine is likewise > restricted, the cost will remain be enourmous. BTW, when you say we are > less regulated do you mean the qualifications of doctors are lower or > do you mean that Uncle Sam doesn't directly set the rates that our medicine > people can charge? > --Cliff Flat nonsense; in *some* sections of the country (i.e. where there are people with lotsa bucks), hospital beds go empty for lack of patients. In some *other* sections of the country (e.g. the South Bronx), there are not enough hospital beds to go around. If you can decide what drug to use, why do we need doctors at all?? That's it, deregulate all the way; get rid of doctors, let everyone practice medicine. One condition, though: YOU, nor anyone else, CANNOT sue the drug manufacturer, your insurance company, the government or anyone else, when the drug you take turns out to make your kids be born with no brain. Finally, a large brake to the increase in health enterprises is the threat of malpractice suits. When a doctor has to pay $60,000 a year in malpractice insurance, no wonder people are not rushing into the health field. This is not due to government regulation, but to the litigious nature of US society. Marcel.