Time to privatize healthcare?

[sumdumguy]

People I know are in Edmonton today at a private clinic for elective surgery rather than waiting 6 months to a year here. We go around once and the smoother, the better. Public health care worked when …. (you all know what I’d like to say).

[Sodbuster]

I certainly favour a hybrid system. Listening to a radio show the other day, a person phones in with an interesting statistic. In Arizona there is 2.5 ICU beds per 100000 population, in Alberta with our much celebrated socialized medical system we have less than 1 ICU bed per 100000. I fully realize that the individual cost in the States can be onerous but Covid has certainly shown the weaknesses in our present system!

Population of Alberta is 4.400,000, so you’re saying that Alberta has 44 ICU beds, maybe your decimal point is in the wrong place and Alberta has 10 ICU beds per 100000 that would work out to 440 ICU beds. Found a table, not sure how old it is but using these figures it would work out to be 6.7 beds per 100000.

[chuckChuck]

Trust right wingers to come up with healthcare privatization as the solution to over run ICUs because of unvaccinated covid patients! LOL

How is private healthcare handling the over run healthcare system in the US because of covid? Aren't they having the the same problem keeping up with covid patients in many areas and don't have enough ICU beds and staff?

Why not advocate that everyone get vaccinated, that would be a a much cheaper and more effective solution to prevent people from ending up in hospital as much as possible?

Oh but many on the right wing argue against vaccine mandates and more vaccination!

All I can say is don't let right wingers anywhere near public health policy because they will f..k it up with stupid ideas.

[jensend]

Studies consistently show that education and health care are two of the best investments an economy can make. It makes sense that a healthy, educated workforce would be an asset to any economy. The problem is that both, although very productive, are bottomless pits. It’s hard to determine where the law of diminishing returns takes effect or where the break even point is.

[Hamloc]

Population of Alberta is 4.400,000, so you’re saying that Alberta has 44 ICU beds, maybe your decimal point is in the wrong place and Alberta has 10 ICU beds per 100000 that would work out to 440 ICU beds. Found a table, not sure how old it is but using these figures it would work out to be 6.7 beds per 100000.

[ATTACH]8796[/ATTACH]

I am glad you double checked and did the math. So basically Alberta according to the news has 373 ICU beds. I have to be honest the 100000 was from memory. Looking at the numbers it would have been per 10000 people not 100000, should never depend on ones memory. So Alberta has 373 beds and a population of 4.4 million. Arizona has 1721 ICU beds and a population of 7.28 million. So Alberta has 8.5 per 100000 and Arizona has 23.6 per 100000. My apologies for my numbers being way out of whack. Corrrected now and Arizona has almost 3 times as many per 100000 as Alberta.

[Hamloc]

Trust right wingers to come up with healthcare privatization as the solution to over run ICUs because of unvaccinated covid patients! LOL

How is private healthcare handling the over run healthcare system in the US because of covid? Aren't they having the the same problem keeping up with covid patients in many areas and don't have enough ICU beds and staff?

Why not advocate that everyone get vaccinated, that would be a a much cheaper and more effective solution to prevent people from ending up in hospital as much as possible?

Oh but many on the right wing argue against vaccine mandates and more vaccination!

All I can say is don't let right wingers anywhere near public health policy because they will f..k it up with stupid ideas.

So Chuck2 you obviously believe our socialized system gives good service. The neighbour that my son and I helped combine this fall might not agree. He has been waiting 3 years for a knee replacement, certainly a problem prior to Covid. Tore ligament in his shoulder last May, still waiting on an operation. He can hardly get around and has a somewhat low quality of life right now. Unable to do much work. We certainly need to improve the delivery of services.

[agstar77]

People I know are in Edmonton today at a private clinic for elective surgery rather than waiting 6 months to a year here. We go around once and the smoother, the better. Public health care worked when …. (you all know what I’d like to say).

So if something goes wrong and they need an ICU who will look after them?

[blackpowder]

Why does everyone think it has to be all or none? No one said they want a US style system. Is there not somewhat successful hybrids in other countries?

[chuckChuck]

So Chuck2 you obviously believe our socialized system gives good service. The neighbour that my son and I helped combine this fall might not agree. He has been waiting 3 years for a knee replacement, certainly a problem prior to Covid. Tore ligament in his shoulder last May, still waiting on an operation. He can hardly get around and has a somewhat low quality of life right now. Unable to do much work. We certainly need to improve the delivery of services.

Agreed we need better service. And the path to that is more capacity and more efficiency. It's going to take more doctors, more nurses and more beds. Its going to cost taxpayers more.

There is no profit in good affordable and timely healthcare. And why do we need to pay a profit to someone for healthcare? Where would the profit come from? Any potential profit should go to providing more healthcare. We don't need a two tier system where those who have money get the best care.

The other thing we need to do is spend more on prevention. Improving diets, getting more exercise and cutting smoking and alcohol consumption. Lifestyle factors are costing us billions in healthcare. Prevention is much cheaper.

But when governments try to cut sugar and salt contents in food, food processors fight it. As one example.

[agstar77]

Did you not get the memo on what happened in for profit senior homes? When it comes to the health of society profit does not seem to be the best choice. Depending on the altruism of corporate exec's is an iffy proposition. There are those that rail against the Bill Gates of the world but would you trust him with your health?