OT: Entitlements [was Re: Python usage numbers]

[Tim Wintle]

(Sorry for top-posting this bit, but I think it's required before the
rest of my response)

At the risk of wading into this from a UK citizen's perspective:

You're imagining a public healthcare system as if it were private.

Imagine you go to a doctor and say "I've got the flu, can you give me
antibiotics".

In a Private healthcare system:

 * The doctor gets paid for retaining a client.
 * He is incentivised to do what you request.
... so he gives you the antibiotics.

In a Public healthcare system:
 * The doctor is paid no matter what.
 * His job is to stop the population becoming ill.
 * By reducing illnesses he reduces his workload, without reducing his
wage

... so he'll only give you antibiotics if he feels you are at serious
risk, and giving you antibiotics carries less risk for the population
than the risk of the population getting immunities.

Same goes for surgery etc.

On Mon, 2012-02-13 at 08:01 -0800, Rick Johnson wrote:
> And just how much healthcare dollars are you entitled to exactly? Can
> you put your entitlement into some form of monetary value?
> 
> And how can we ever make a system like this fair? If someone works for
> 30 years and pays a 30% tax rate and another works for 2 years and
> pays 15%, then how do we delegate the fair share?

If your children are educated privately then should you still be paying
taxes for education?

If you work for/bank with a company that doesn't need to be bailed out,
then should you still pay tax for that?

If you never need benefits (welfare) then should your taxes be paying
for that?

you can use that same argument for everything that taxes pay for - the
only logical conclusion of that argument is anarchy (i.e. no taxes, and
no government).

If you are an anarchist then that's a different argument all together
(not saying it doesn't have intellectual validity).

<snip>

> Healthcare is expensive. Do you want a minimum wage doctor curing your
> ills? And the frivolous lawsuits are not bringing the costs down
> either.

It's so expensive because of the marketing, and because of all the
middle-men.

A public health system doesn't need to do that marketing.

They also don't need to put up with people who aren't seriously ill - I
don't know how long your private appointments are, but here in the UK a
standard doctor's appointment is 5-10 minutes. If they decide you're
actually ill they may extend that.

> > - bosses win, because they have reduced absenteeism, lower training costs
> > to replace workers who die, and fewer epidemics that threaten their own
> > families
> 
> BS! With free healthcare, those who would have allowed their immune
> system fight off the flu, now take off from work, visit a local
> clinic, and get pumped full of antibiotics so they can create a new
> strain of antibiotic resistant flu virus! Thanks free healthcare!

See my comments at the top.