What would you change about the Health Care System

[Virginiá]

Guaranteed minimum income + publicly provided basic goods (health, education, housing, etc.) is the way to go.

Ideally. It's hard to see the future not having both, but I must admit, I don't quite understand the obsession in the GOP with block grants / lump payments / handfuls of cash. Like you can see this trend in so many of their proposals. Just reminds me of people who don't want to be forced to do anything, including having a govt-run healthcare service/plan when they could just take cash instead.

Maybe they feel that people can make better choices on their own rather than submitting to specific, preset services, but tbh I think people would end up worse off if just given a stack of cash and then left to their own devices.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Guaranteed minimum income + publicly provided basic goods (health, education, housing, etc.) is the way to go.

Ideally. It's hard to see the future not having both, but I must admit, I don't quite understand the obsession in the GOP with block grants / lump payments / handfuls of cash. Like you can see this trend in so many of their proposals. Just reminds me of people who don't want to be forced to do anything, including having a govt-run healthcare service/plan when they could just take cash instead.

Maybe they feel that people can make better choices on their own rather than submitting to specific, preset services, but tbh I think people would end up worse off if just given a stack of cash and then left to their own devices.

Well, there is something to be said about the liberal (in the proper sense) idea that people should have as much autonomy as possible in deciding what's good for them. In at least a few cases that's definitely true: we all have different sets of priority on how to spend our money, and having the choice of how to spend it means that we can do a better job at maximizing our well-being. Of course all this is predicated on the highly disputable assumption that humans are rational beings.

That said, yes, in my view it is a moral imperative that the most basic needs be fulfilled. Nobody should be left without food, a home, or medical attention. This obviously takes precedence over liberal individualism.

[DavidB.]

Well, at its heart, healthcare should be a basic human right, available to all persons on earth. From what I know there is no scientific or technological reason why that should not be the case already - it's merely a matter of logistics and political will.

WARNING UK SPECIFIC

I would reverse partial privatisation, agency staffing, consultants and managerial corporatisation (NHS Commissioning Board, Moniter etc.) that are essentially interesting (yet costly!) failed experiment at best. Create a well-funded non-profit pharma company under public (in a matter of speaking) hands, that will be (less) free of the shenanigans that go on under private care (obviously new public behemoths should be avoided, but ... ). That would free up funding for the many diseases that are chronically underinvested in, and allow private pharma companies to focus on the stuff they prefer to study for).

 There is a lot of legislation you also need around the regulation of medical studies - existing regulation from journals and university boards are weak and fail all the time.) Oh yeah and replace drug patents with a reward system, taking a huge wedge out of the cost of drug procurement, a rare interesting idea proposed by Bernie Sanders.

Smaller healthcare providers (dentists, clinics etc.) should be given incentives to form cooperatives. All essential medicine should be free at point of use (dentristry, social care, optics, prescriptions  and mental health included); I have largely soured on means-testing in any capacity in the health service.  Phase out PFI; and any debts incurred from that should be audited and centralised under the Treasury. Reintroduce elected Community Health councils to replace the trusts. They should be half elected by people, half by NHS employees.

Great post. I basically agree with all of this.

[President Johnson]

Universal health care.

[Illiniwek]

Public option

[MK]

4/5  Government should have complete control over the healthcare system.  Prices should be regulated.

[pho]

Guaranteed minimum income + publicly provided basic goods (health, education, housing, etc.) is the way to go.

Ideally. It's hard to see the future not having both, but I must admit, I don't quite understand the obsession in the GOP with block grants / lump payments / handfuls of cash. Like you can see this trend in so many of their proposals. Just reminds me of people who don't want to be forced to do anything, including having a govt-run healthcare service/plan when they could just take cash instead.

Maybe they feel that people can make better choices on their own rather than submitting to specific, preset services, but tbh I think people would end up worse off if just given a stack of cash and then left to their own devices.

The idea is that giving out free money is cheaper and easier than giving out free stuff. You can guarantee a minimum income to more people, at a lower tax rate and administrative cost than directly providing goods & services. The trade off is accepting that a certain number of people will spend their money irresponsibly and regret it later. The greater autonomy, both personal and financial, is worth that imo.

[Rick Grimes]

i would increase the medicare expansion like president obama did & use tort reform to cut the cost.