Isn’t that the crux of any managed care system? It doesn’t matter if it is run by the government or not, someone, somewhere has to make the decision that patient X with disease Y doesn’t have an expected success rate to justify treatment.
It’s a finite pool of money. Coronary Artery Disease is a leading killer. 650,000 die a year. 5% die on the operating table. 20% within the year. 35% within 5 years. How much do we spend to treat CAD? How long will the wait be? The wait increases the death rate. What’s the cut-off for a patient if a panel doctors estimates they won’t make it through the operation? 50/50? 80% chance of death on table?
Or may favorite disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, aka human mad cow. roughly 200 cases a year in the US. 90% die within the year. How much do you allocate for spending? on treatment? on research? We don’t have a cure, will you doom 200 people year for lack of enough research or choose not to treat the heart disease patient above?
Given San Diego’s pension issues, has corrupt and inept as the insurance company’s may be, do you really think the Government is going to do it cheaper and better once the bureaucracy is established?
I don’t want to hear about the money could come from the war and be better spent, that’s non-issue, I’d consider that a given. However, that money barely scratches the surface. My question is, will you step up to the hard decisions or just pretend government healthcare is an endless mana from heaven.
