US Health care stuff

Since I have a hard time posting comments on the economist site (too much hostfile ad blocking methinks)...

On the other hand it seems to be working now that I've switched from firefox to chrome. Odd...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-cn-canada-medicare-for-all,0,3246185.story Just joining in the speculation about which Chicago Tribune article JBP might have been referring to. and to add my own two cents, it seems to me that one of the major things that contributes to the greater success of the US in achieving positive outcomes in some (often expensive to treat) conditions is that, unlike some other countries (ie Canada) it's very easy to pay more for better treatment (assuming you have the resources). In other countries (ie Canada again) it's very very hard to spend more to get more even if you want to because there is a political value in Canada for avoiding a two-tiered system. Which is fine, even though occasionally this does leave Canadians shopping for expensive treatments in the US. Since the US doesn't have any problem with a tiered system and no one is proposing to limit the amount of extra insurance or personal expenditure (at least to my knowledge) available, I can't really understand the opposition to making the downside risks less.